A father’s haunting message to his transgender son weeks before the son was gunned down in a California parking lot by his in-laws has been revealed.
William Finney II, the dad of slain New York Times tech exec Jonathan McKinsey, implored his son to come home and visit his family 18 days before Dublin, California, police found McKinsey dead in a parking lot. His in-laws, Shili Chen and Shouyong Zhang, are accused of shooting him, taking turns pumping bullets into his body.
Finney also referenced the ongoing strife between McKinsey and his wife, Candice Jang. The couple had three children and were undergoing a bitter divorce that saw both sides file restraining orders against each other.
“Jon, hope everything is going well,” Finney wrote on Sept. 8. “Hope you can visit us when you have some free time. Mom and Dad love you so much and miss you. Hope everything goes well with you and Candice and the kids.”
Finney was responding to a new profile picture McKinsey posted on Sept. 7. McKinsey was formerly Dawn Finney before he transitioned from female to male in 2010. He married Jang in 2011.
Witnesses say Chen and Zhang took turns shooting McKinsey on the afternoon of Sept. 26 in broad daylight. Dublin police arrested and booked the pair into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of murder.
McKinsey had considerable tension with his in-laws. He noted in his restraining order papers against Jang that her mother verbally attacked him during a visit in 2023. When the father defended one of his children’s choices to wear a dress, Chen called him a “disgusting queer” and a “pervert.”
“She blamed me for Wyatt wanting to wear his sister’s dresses and told me to get out of ‘her house’ even though we were in the home owned by Candice and I,” McKinsey wrote.
He tried to get his wife to hire outside help to prevent Chen from taking care of their children again, but Jang allegedly refused.
His tensions with Zhang were more physical in nature. After McKinsey had a double mastectomy in 2010 as part of his transition, Zhang allegedly punched McKinsey in the chest.
McKinsey was charged with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse after he was allegedly abusive to one of his children, but was ultimately released from jail on the condition that he take parenting classes.
Court records indicate Jang believed McKinsey to have a short fuse.
“During our marriage, the children and I learned to avoid provoking Jonathan lest he became angry. In my experience, appearing agreeable or happy around him was sometimes a means of avoiding his anger,” Jang said in an August custody filing obtained by the California Post.
In his own restraining order filing, McKinsey also accused his wife of abuse in their relationship, including an episode where she pushed him to try to commit suicide, the documents say.
McKinsey claimed Jang told him he should kill himself because “no one would want to be with someone as f–ked up and transgender like me.”
Jang first filed a restraining order against McKinsey last year, alleging he “threatened to kill me and my parents.”
McKinsey’s in-laws are facing a string of serious charges, including first-degree murder, felony conspiracy, dangerously firing a gun, and child endangerment that could have caused major injury or death, according to booking records.
The California Post reached out to Finney for comment.
