Closure on Chiang cold case near after 12 years

The 12-year-old investigation into the death of federal attorney Joyce Chiang is expected to come to a close Friday.

Ms. Chiang’s brother, Roger Chiang, said the Metropolitan Police Department will announce that his sister’s death has officially been ruled a homicide and police have identified two suspects in the case.

Ms. Chiang, an Immigration and Naturalization Services attorney, disappeared from her Dupont Circle neighborhood on Jan. 9, 1999. According to news reports at the time, some of her personal belongings were found two weeks later on the banks of the Anacostia River. Her body washed ashore in the Potomac River in Fairfax County three months later, but the medical examiner’s office was unable to determine her cause of death.

A law enforcement source with knowledge of the case confirmed that the police have identified two men suspected in Ms. Chiang’s death. One of the men is serving consecutive life sentences for another crime, and the other served time in prison for a robbery and was later deported to Guyana, both the source and Mr. Chiang said.

The men are thought to have been involved in a spree of robberies starting in 1998 and ending two months after Ms. Chiang’s disappearance, Mr. Chiang said he was told by investigators.

At a news conference scheduled for Friday morning, Mr. Chiang said he thinks police will announce whether they plan to proceed with prosecution in the case.

Two years after Ms. Chiang’s death, Metropolitan Police officials said they thought the 28-year-old woman had committed suicide — an assertion her family strongly disputed.

“It’s been a tough 12 years. This is vindication for my sister,” Mr. Chiang said. “We’re so thankful this team of prosecutors and cops revived my sister’s case.”