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Below you will find a compilation of the evidence and information from the view of both the police (who believe this case is an obvious suicide) and the family (who believe it was murder).

What happened at the scene?

Family's Proof (Murder)
Police mishandled scene of death and evidence.
All police evidence has been compromised and cannot be trusted.

Police's Story (Suicide)

Police followed appropriate protocol at scene of death as it was evident he committed suicide.

  • Scene of death was never secured or investigated as anything other than suicide

  • No measurements were taken, scene was changed before forensics team arrived, body was handled by police without gloves (per police photo)

  • Officer on scene took pictures on cell phone which he was ordered to erase

  • No finger prints or DNA swabs taken of scene to check for presence of 3rd party

  • Forensic computer expert said police did not follow internationally practiced procedures to seize and preserve computer data (Computer data compromised by police searches, computer was not given to forensics for over a month)

  • Scene of death was never secured or investigated as anything other than suicide

  • IO Khaldun ordered body cut down before forensic team arrived, reason given was to resuscitate even though officer said it was evident Shane had been dead for some time (6 hours or more) and had been left hanging by police for over 30 minutes (refer to chronology)

What was Shane's emotional state?

Family's Proof (Murder)

Anxious, had expressed fear for life.
Psychiatrist said he had no suicidal ideations.

Police's Story (Suicide)

History of depression.
Severe depression leading to suicide.

  • One short incidence of depression in 2003, quickly resolved (See DR‐1)

  • Visited psychiatrist with anxiety and work related stress on April 4, 2012, Dr. Lee stated Shane had no suicidal ideations (See DR‐1)

  • Dr. Lee confirmed at inquest that he had said to the parents that out of all his patients Shane was the least likely to commit suicide

  • Called family weekly from end of February 2012, continually expressed fear that his life was in danger and that he was being asked to compromise US security

  • Girlfriend said Shane was not suicidal, had told her “heavy hands are on me”

  • All close colleagues said Shane was not suicidal, was a fun guy and was excited about going home

  • Shane’s testimony – Accepted new job, bought plane ticket home, asked family to wait until he got home to celebrate Father’s Day and brother’s 21st birthday and was washing and packing clothes when he was found dead

  • The police say that Shane's computer showed visits to suicide related websites, but they refuse to make public the actual computer history or the IP address where the searches were made. 

What evidence was found?

Family's Proof (Murder)

Time of death was Friday night 6/22 or very early Saturday morning 6/23.

Suicide searches on computer were made by police or someone else.

Police's Story (Suicide)

Made suicide searches on computer 6/23 during the day.

  • 8:00pm Friday 6/22 last seen alive by two neighbors when Shane picked up his mail and delivered theirs, neighbors who said he was fine were not interviewed

  • No phone calls or text messages received or sent after Friday evening

  • Man who was reported to have seen Shane on Saturday changed his testimony

  • Inexplicable direct plug‐in to external Seagate on 6/23 3:39 am, Huawei work files opened

  • Web addresses of suicide sites not provided by police or state lawyers even when requested at inquest

  • IP addresses of computer accessing website never confirmed by websites

  • Family’s forensic expert was never given access to computer to verify searches

  • Computer was compromised by police searches and was not given to forensics for over a month

Family's Proof (Murder)

Suicide note did not reflect Shane’s writing style and contained false and inaccurate information.

Note was written by someone else.

Police's Story (Suicide)

Suicide note written by Shane on Saturday 6/23, found in open document on computer.

  • Suicide note thanked IME while colleagues and family knew he hated IME, memories were inconsistent with reality, some events in note never occurred

  • Family’s forensic expert never given access to computer to verify integrity

  • Authenticity of note could be determined by writing style evaluation

  • Report of Dr. Camp and Report of Dr. Chaski

Family's Proof (Murder)

Post‐it notes are very odd.

  • Written password had crossed zero in European style which Shane never used

  • Odd wording and position, had to pass body to see the notes, not on door or computer, written on tiny slips of paper, girlfriend never even saw notes

Police's Story (Suicide)

Notes left by TV, one had computer password, other said, “Please don’t come in. Please call the police.”

Family's Proof (Murder)

Was murdered and then hung on door.

Died by some other means than by hanging possibly by garroting a cord.
Put up a fight before being killed.

Police's Story (Suicide)

Hung himself by a strap on bathroom door.
Died by asphyxiation.

What evidence was found?

Did Hauwei and GaN play a part?

Family's Proof (Murder)

IME/Huawei do not want true relationship revealed.
Shane was working on an ongoing project between IME and Huawei for about one year.

Police's Story (Suicide)

There was minimal connection between IME and Huawei, preliminary talks only, and no ongoing GaN project.

  • IME/Huawei story keeps changing, IME originally denied any connection

  • Several documents found on external Seagate that demonstrate Shane’s on‐going work relationship with Huawei starting August 2011 (Refer to HD‐1, 2,3,6,7,11,12,15,16,17)

  • IME employee testified with recorded evidence that IME employees were threatened with legal action if they revealed any client information

Family's Proof (Murder)

Shane was the leader of a GaN research and development team.

Police's Story (Suicide)

Shane was not an important player on GaN team.

  • Power Point presentation – Shane named as leader (Refer to HD‐11)

  • Shane purchased machine, hired GaN team (Refer to HD‐1,4,5)

  • Colleagues on team testified Shane was a great team leader

Family's Proof (Murder)

Veeco machine has special with military grade

capability.
GaN project with Huawei had potential military application.

Police's Story (Suicide)

Veeco machine commonplace around Asia, nothing special about machine.
Shane obtained from Veeco, machine available in China.
Veeco tool only capable of commercial grade applications.

  • Veeco sales representative who worked with Shane to purchase machine testified at inquest that it was a totally unique machine, no other like it (model MOCVD), none in China, made expressly for IME

  • Copy of export license on external Seagate hard drive (Refer to HD‐1)

  • Documents demonstrating objectives for GaN power specifications were military grade of 150w compared to commercial of 60w (Refer to HD‐6,10,11)

Family's Proof (Murder)

Shane copied best GaN formulas by hand during Veeco training.

Police's Story (Suicide)

Shane not working with special GaN formulas, no formulas were copied by hand.

  • Veeco visit proposal lists objective to copy formula by hand (Refer to HD‐8,9)

  • In personal email correspondence with Dr. Lo, Shane states he copied formula by hand (Refer to HD‐13)

  • In a conversation with his brother Shane stated that Veeco couldn’t give him a special recipe but he could take notes while the process was running, Shane expressed concern about that being a little shady

Family's Proof (Murder)

Shane believed Veeco machine GaN project potentially violated US export law and was concerned about machine usage.

Police's Story (Suicide)

Veeco tool only capable of commercial grade applications.

  • After returning to Singapore following Veeco training Shane told his family he was confused because the room that IME had built for the MOCVD tool had been replaced with a smaller room that would not work for the machine they had bought – family believes that was his first inclination something was wrong

  • Shane’s list of pro/cons about staying with IME states as a con the “possibility of violating US export law” (Refer to HD‐14)

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