Three bailed over Chinese family murders in Britain

LONDON - British police said Thursday they had released on bail three people arrested in connection with the murder of a Chinese family of four nearly a year ago.

University lecturer Ding Jifeng, 46, his wife Helen Chui, 47, and their daughters Xing, 18, and Alice, 12, were found stabbed to death at their home in Northampton, central England, on May 1 last year.

Detectives arrested two women aged 54 and 39 and a 25-year-old man at three addresses across England on Wednesday on suspicion of conspiracy to assist an offender, Northamptonshire Police said.

The force said Thursday they had all been interviewed and released on bail. Soon after the killings, police launched a nationwide manhunt for Anxiang Du, a 52-year-old former business associate of the Ding family.

Ding worked in the chemistry and environmental sciences division at Manchester Metropolitan University, while his wife taught Mandarin part-time at a local business school.

Both are from Hangzhou, the capital of eastern China’s Zhejiang Province.