Johnson County woman stalked by suspected KC killer faces federal prostitution charge
A Johnson County massage parlor manager who was once stalked by suspected serial killer Robert J. Gross has been accused by federal prosecutors of allowing her workers to perform sex acts in exchange for tips.
Chunqui Wu, 61, of Overland Park, has been indicted U.S. District Court in Kansas with one count of transportation with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
Prosecutors allege that Wu owned or operated three massage parlors. Two are in Olathe, including Alpha Massage at 116 S. Clairborne Road and A Plus Massage at 527 N. Mur-Len Road in Olathe. Another, in Leawood, is the King Spa at 13104 State Line Road.
Federal prosecutors allege that Wu told an undercover informant seeking a job in one of Wu’s massage parlors that she allowed her workers to perform sexual services for tips.
Other undercover investigators reported that employees in Wu’s massage parlors offered sexual services to customers, according court records.
Wu was recently arrested when she went to the Kansas City International Airport to meet the undercover confidential informant to drive her to Kansas to work in one of the massage parlors, federal prosecutors allege.
Wu is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison.
Before being indicted, Wu had testified in May at the federal criminal trial of Gross, who was accused of stalking women, including Wu, who worked at massage parlors in Johnson County and in Lawrence. Gross, 68, was convicted of interstate stalking and several federal firearms violations.
None of the charges in that trial were related to the series of homicides and arsons that Gross has been a suspect in since the 1970s. Gross has been suspected of killing four people, including two women connected to the massage business.
He has never been charged in a homicide. However, federal prosecutors have said they intend, at his upcoming sentencing in the stalking case, to accuse him in a 2016 slaying of a woman in the Northland.
The Star published a six-part series last year about Gross and his possible role in those crimes.
Stalking at massage parlor
Wu testified in court that she and other women working at the massage parlors in 2017 found cars were keyed, screws drilled into their tires and their windows smashed out.
Wu said Gross had visited her shops at least 10 times since January 2017. He often visited the massage parlors without getting a massage, occasionally handing out flowers to workers.
Gross also asked for sexual services. He was told to leave during visits to massage parlors in Olathe in October 2017. Gross later went to a massage parlor in Lawrence where he paid for a massage and took his clothes off. That incident was captured on video.
After the woman told Gross she would not do any sexual favors, he berated her and refused to leave.
The worker called Wu, who told Gross that he needed to leave. Gross became upset, called Wu a “stupid bitch,” and threatened to call authorities on her.
Police investigations of those incidents led to Gross’s arrest and conviction on interstate stalking and gun charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 6.
Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo filed in November that they will present evidence at the hearing that Gross “brutally murdered and decapitated” a woman inside a Kansas City, North apartment.
The memo does not include the victim’s name, but Gross has long been suspected in the Aug. 6, 2016 killing of a woman named Ying Li, who was found slain in her living room.
Gross has not been charged in the killing. Federal law allows prosecutors to present information about uncharged crimes at sentencing.
No arrests have been made in the case, and it remains under investigation.
