Episode 81:
The Monster of the Family Dinner (Real True Crime)

"Six dead, no death penalty — doesn't that mean society is rotten? Your Honor, is this your definition of justice?" Shockingly, the man saying these words was standing in the defendant's seat. He mocked the judge, smirked, and winked at the press, soaking up all the public attention. He even had the audacity to say he would kill again if he were reborn.

What on earth turned this man into a monster?

As Lunar New Year arrived on February 7, 2016, the Weng family's home in Taoyuan, Taiwan was packed with celebration — seven siblings gathered together after years apart, along with grandchildren and a devoted caregiver, sixteen family members in all filling the two-story sanheyuan estate.

The Closed Door at the End of the Hall

While the rest of the family cooked, laughed, and filled the second-floor kitchen with the smell of holiday dumplings, one room stayed silent — the youngest son Weng Ren-xian's, at the farthest corner of the floor. When his third brother knocked to ask him to join dinner, the only reply through the door was a venomous curse: "Back off before I kill you all." It wasn't the first time. Once a special forces soldier with real physical skill, Weng Ren-xian had spent seventeen years cycling through fourteen jobs, convinced the world was too small for his abilities, before locking himself in his room in his late thirties. Even past fifty, he lived entirely off his aging parents, and his mother continued cooking his meals and doing his laundry out of quiet pity. The family gave up trying to draw him out and started dinner without him.

Just as the meal began, a strange smell crept through the house. Following it downstairs, family members found the cars in the courtyard engulfed in flames — and Weng Ren-xian standing there, giggling, holding plastic bottles of gasoline in both hands. Before anyone could react, he sprinted for the second-floor kitchen where his parents and the rest of the family were still eating, screaming "Die, all of you! Just go to hell already, you worthless pieces of trash," doused his mother in gasoline, and threw a lit piece of newspaper at her.

A Machete and a Getaway

The second floor went up in flames within seconds. Family members outside rushed in to save whoever they could, several suffering severe burns just trying to get people out. Weng Ren-xian himself emerged from the fire with burns on his face and arms and tried to flee before police arrived — until his second older brother and a nephew managed to tackle him. What followed was a brawl he had no intention of losing: he pulled a hidden machete and slashed at both of them until they were forced to retreat, then jumped on a motorcycle he'd already started before setting the fire and rode away while his family fought for their lives behind him.

The fire, accelerated by 20 liters of gasoline, took three hours to put out. Five family members, including both parents, died almost instantly; six others were pulled out with third-degree burns over their entire bodies. His third brother's youngest daughter later died of her injuries, bringing the final death toll to six.

Five Years of Planning

The explanation was waiting in Weng Ren-xian's own room: scrawled on the wall in blood-red paint was the message, "Killing people drives me crazy. Just wait for me a little longer. I'll definitely be back." Investigation confirmed he'd planned the massacre for years, deliberately choosing Lunar New Year because it guaranteed every relative would be under one roof, and buying the 20 liters of gasoline the night before.

He evaded capture for five days, deliberately abandoning his phone in Longtan District to send police on a false trail while he fled toward mountainous terrain caught on highway cameras. Hundreds of officers searched without success until a resident spotted him lurking near a village and reported him. At his arrest, he mocked the officers: "You guys should consider yourselves lucky. If it weren't for these burns, you never would have caught me." Some investigators believe he let himself be found on purpose, just to brag about outrunning them.

During questioning, he bragged that he'd originally considered cutting his family's tendons to leave them permanently disabled instead of killing them outright, reasoning fire was safer since it "wipes everything out at once" and he wouldn't risk losing a physical fight. He'd spent five years secretly studying his family's habits during every holiday gathering, refining a plan built entirely on the conviction that his own failures were their fault — that his mother's care was disguised mockery and any advice from his siblings was hostility.

Final Thoughts

At his August 2016 trial, Weng showed no remorse whatsoever, flipping off the press and asking cameras if he looked good, then turning to the grieving family in the courtroom to say, "Every time I'm reborn, I'll find your family and kill you again and again." The court found he retained virtually no humanity and posed an extreme risk of reoffending, sentencing him to death for murder and arson.

On April 1, 2020, facing execution by firing squad, he refused the standard sedative, claiming he wanted to feel death — a decision that turned out to be a stalling tactic rather than bravado, since it complicated the procedure. When the moment actually came, he broke down completely, sobbing and begging for mercy before being restrained by four officers. He was executed at approximately 9 p.m. The man who once smiled and told police "humans all die eventually anyway" met his own death as the most frightened person in the room.