Las Vegas is famous for quick walk-ins at wedding chapels, but local authorities say one resident took the city’s elopement culture to an extreme.
Jiaying Chen, 33, is currently sitting in the Clark County Detention Center on a $100,000 bail after allegedly collecting husbands at a record pace. According to prosecutors, Chen managed to tie the knot five times in just a matter of months this year alone. That is on top of the 14 different marriage certificates she allegedly racked up under her real name and her alias, Vicky Liang, since 2019.
The alleged serial bride’s run came to an end on June 4. Las Vegas Metro officers and Homeland Security investigators, acting on a tip that Chen was at a local restaurant meeting a man to discuss yet another marriage, set up surveillance and moved in for the arrest. When they searched her, detectives found what appeared to be a fraudulent passport and a fake Nevada driver’s license.
According to police reports, Chen’s strategy followed a distinct script. “After a short time, Chen would suggest they get married,” police wrote in an arrest report. “Chen would provide different stories, some involving sick family members in China and would start asking for money. Once Chen received the money, she would break all communication with them.”
The financial damage quickly added up for her suitors. One husband told investigators he handed over $40,000 to help her supposedly ill family. Another short-term spouse said he gave her $23,000, only for Chen to pocket the cash and bluntly inform him “she didn’t want to be married anymore to him.” A third man, who knew Chen for six months before their wedding, parted with $20,000 to help her half-sister. Police confirmed that, legally speaking, he is still married to her.
It wasn’t just hopeful grooms falling for the routine. Prosecutors say Chen also targeted a woman in a check-cashing scheme, draining $40,000 from her using bad checks tied to a man’s account.
The Clark County Marriage Bureau first caught wind of the pattern in 2024, around the same time Chen’s various husbands started growing suspicious. While she was originally hit with bigamy and theft charges in August 2024, Chen skipped her initial court appearance, remaining at large until her restaurant arrest this month.
While earlier charges of forgery and high-level theft have since been dropped, Chen still faces five felony counts of bigamy and two counts of intent to utter a fictitious check. She is scheduled to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court on June 29 for a preliminary hearing.
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