Man who stabbed mom 373 times found not criminally responsible

A Vancouver man who fatally stabbed his mother and tried to kill an 18-month-old girl has been found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

David Siu was charged with the April 2014 second-degree murder of Yin Nor Hsao, 63, and the attempted murder of the girl, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban.

Siu’s mother was stabbed 373 times and the girl 19 times. When police arrived at the family apartment at 3319 Kingsway, they saw the two victims lying on the floor outside the suite.

The accused, whose clothes were covered in blood, could be seen standing in the hallway near the victims, holding a paring knife in an upright position, pointing to the ceiling. He was swaying from side to side.

The officers told him three or four times to drop the knife but he refused. When he turned the tip of the knife towards one of the cops, seeming to move forward or move the knife forward, one of the cops shot him several times.

One bullet also hit the body of the mother but a pathologist determined it was not a contributing cause of death.

Siu’s father testified Siu had a history of hospitalization for schizophrenia. Siu took the stand and claimed three other people, two of them former classmates of his, had been stalking him and stabbed his mother hundreds of times.

Siu also claimed he was a medical doctor who attended Harvard University, won the Nobel Peace Prize and had a home and a fiancée in Boston.

The judge found that Siu had committed the stabbings and ordered a psychiatric evaluation of the accused.

A psychiatrist found that Siu at the time of the slaying was suffering from severe and chronic schizophrenia and may have been seeing ghosts in the form of people masquerading as his mom and the girl.

Siu also believed his mother was trying to poison him and the girl was part of the plot.