Australian police have released a graphic x-ray showing approximately 30 nails embedded in the skull of a 27-year-old man, in a bid to find his killer. The victim, Chen Liu, also known as Anthony, was killed with a high-powered nail gun that fired metal spikes up to 85mm long into his head and neck.
Liu's body was discovered on 1 November last year by two children, aged nine and 14, as they canoed down the Georges River in south Sydney. The children spotted a badly decomposed body wrapped in a rug near mangroves at dusk and alerted their parents.
Police believe Liu had been dead for 12 days before being found. His body was bound with electrical wires and an extension cord, rolled in a domestic rug with ends neatly tucked in, and tied with three pieces of wire. Homicide squad head Geoff Beresford described it as 'a particularly brutal and vicious murder', noting he had never encountered a nail gun murder in 36 years of investigations.
Authorities suspect Liu was killed elsewhere and then driven to the river in his blue 2005 Range Rover Sport 4WD. No arrests have been made, and the weapon remains missing. A male friend had reported Liu missing two weeks before the body was discovered.
