Family and friends attend wake for Naperville’s Eva Liu, murdered while traveling with friend in Germany
A steady stream of mourners walked past a spray of pink roses atop a closed white casket at a Naperville funeral home where a visitation was held Thursday night for 21-year-old Eva Liu.
The young Naperville woman died June 15 after she was attacked and pushed down a 165-foot ravine at a scenic lookout near Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany. A Michigan man suspected in her death is in custody.
Liu was on a European vacation with a friend to celebrate graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science.
She was to start her career as a software engineer with Microsoft in July.
Instead, her parents, Lan Liu and Ping He, stood in a receiving line at the Beidelman-Kunsch Funeral Home in Naperville, sharing their sorrow with family and friends.
Among those attending the private visitation was U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, who paused briefly in front of the casket and offered his condolences to the young woman’s parents.
“This is a horrible tragedy and, as a member of the Naperville community, Congressman Foster wanted to join his neighbors in showing support for Eva’s family and friends,” Foster’s spokeswoman Grace Bouton said after the wake.
At the back of the room, neighbors and friends watched a photo montage of Liu’s travels.
Liu and her twin sister, Alice, were born on Oct. 30, 2001, in Guangzhou, China, and grew up in Waterloo, Canada, before moving to Naperville in 2013.
Lui attended Madison Junior High School in Naperville and spent one year at Naperville Central High School before transferring to the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, where she graduated in 2019.
Memorial services are planned for 10 a.m. Saturday at Living Water Evangelical Church in Naperville, with the burial to follow in Naperville Cemetery.
Liu and her longtime friend, Kelsey Chang, 22, of Bloomington, were vacationing in Germany when they were lured off a path near the Bavarian castle by a man identified by German police as Troy Bohling, 30, of Lincoln Park, Michigan.
Liu was attacked first, with Chang attempting to intervene before being thrown from the cliff, according to German police. Chang survived the fall by landing on a tree, reports said.
The suspect reportedly tried to sexually assault Liu before throwing her over the same steep slope.
Bohling is being held in Germany on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and attempted sexual assault. The investigation is ongoing, but it could be three or four months before authorities decide on an indictment, officials said.
