Father of trans-identified female NYT exec urged her to come home weeks before in-laws allegedly killed her amid divorce dispute

Commenting on a Facebook profile photo update from New York Times exec Jonathan McKinsey, William Finney II wrote, “Jon, hope everything is going well. 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,” per the New York Post.

The comment was made on September 8, just 18 days before McKinsey would be found dead in the parking lot of Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California. Shouyong Zhang, 77, and Shili Chen, 77, McKinsey’s parents-in-law, have been charged with the killing.

Witnesses said the in-laws had taken turns shooting McKinsey in the afternoon of September 26. They are facing charges that include first-degree murder, felony conspiracy, dangerously firing a gun, and child endangerment that could have caused major injury or death.

Finney referenced the strained relationship between McKinsey and her wife, Candice Jang, who had three children together. The couple was undergoing a bitter divorce battle. McKinsey was formerly Dawn Finney before undergoing a female-to-male sex change in 2010. McKinsey married Jang the following year. McKinsey was the director of engineering for the NYT's games department.

There had been tension between McKinsey and her in-laws, writing in restraining order papers against Jang that her mother had verbally attacked McKinsey during a 2023 visit. Chen had allegedly called McKinsey a “disgusting queer” and a “pervert” when McKinsey defended her sons wanting to wear dresses.

“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. She also claimed that Zhang had punched her in the chest after undergoing a double mastectomy in 2010.

McKinsey also claimed that Jang has said McKinsey should kill herself because “no one would want to be with someone as f*cked up and transgender like you.”

McKinsey was charged with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse after allegedly hitting her six-year-old son in the face and leaving her two-year-old home alone for over an hour. McKinsey had pleaded not guilty and was expected to return to court next week. McKinsey had been released from jail on the condition that she take parenting classes.

Jang was the first to file a restraining order in the relationship, alleging that McKinsey “threatened to kill me and my parents.” Jang wrote in a custody filing that “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.”