VA - Xin Yang, 22, grad student, murdered on VA Tech campus, 21 Jan 2009

I didn't see it posted, although i could have missed it. A grad student from China is charged with murder:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jJB9tBzWTj6aPe-DcqicYnhrDx5gD95S2V9G0

"BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — A graduate student from China has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a female student on Virginia Tech's campus, the first killing there since a deadly mass shooting in 2007.An electronic alert system revamped after the massacre warned students to stay in place while police investigated the incident around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday — about half an hour after the suspect was taken into custody. They were cleared to resume normal activity about an hour later.
The woman, who was also a graduate student but was not identified, was stabbed to death at a cafe in the Graduate Life Center. Police believe she knew the man accused of attacking her, 25-year-old Haiyang Zhu, the school said in a news release. He was charged with first-degree murder and was being held without bond."
 
I work on the VT Campus, and was horrified to hear the latest details of this tragedy. I was impressed with the new VT Alert System, however; I received 4 text warning alerts within 30 minutes or less of this incident being reported to authorities.

[FONT=&quot]The alerts (and the incident itself) bring back alot of bad memories for alot of us here at Tech, in Blacksburg, and elsewhere.

http://www.wsls.com/sls/news/local/...ch_murder_graduate_student_decapitated/25622/


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Very scary after all the people from that campus went through a couple of years ago. I remember students telling stories about the gunman. It was creepy. If im not mistaken it was 32 people killed then. Prayers for this girls family and the students that are rehashing the memories dealing with death yet again at this school.
 
When I heard it on the news this morning they said they hadn't notified her family. They live in China. It's horrible to hear something like that about your child but to be so far away makes it even worse.
 

From the above article:

"Authorities said the two students knew each other. "Based on emergency contact records maintained by the university, it is known that Zhu and Yang knew each other," Hincker said. No other details were provided."

When they say emergency contact records, I would take that to be the information cards where you put down who should be contacted in case of an emergency. That would say to me that the two knew each other very well. JMO.
 
This is absolutely horrific.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/22/virginia.tech.death/index.html


(CNN) -- A female graduate student at Virginia Tech was killed Wednesday night when a man she knew attacked her with a knife and decapitated her, a school spokesman said.

Virginia Tech police Chief Wendell Flinchum talks about the first slaying on campus since the 2007 shootings.

Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said Thursday that Xin Yang's killing was the first on the campus since April 16, 2007, when a shooter killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself.

Yang, 22, from Beijing, China, was killed at the Au Bon Pain restaurant in the Graduate Life Center at around 7 p.m., school spokesman Larry Hincker said in a written statement.

Campus police took Haiyang Zhu, 25, into custody at the scene. The Ningbo, China, native has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail at a local jail, Hincker said.

Zhu did not say anything to the arresting officers, said campus police Chief Wendell Flinchum.

"There was blood on him," Flinchum said. The young woman and the suspect "were not seen arguing, or anything of that nature," he added, citing witness statements.
 
I work on the VT Campus, and was horrified to hear the latest details of this tragedy. I was impressed with the new VT Alert System, however; I received 4 text warning alerts within 30 minutes or less of this incident being reported to authorities.

[FONT=&quot]The alerts (and the incident itself) bring back alot of bad memories for alot of us here at Tech, in Blacksburg, and elsewhere.

http://www.wsls.com/sls/news/local/...ch_murder_graduate_student_decapitated/25622/


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I am so sorry for all of you to go through this pain again.

imo
 
"Authorities said the two students knew each other. "Based on emergency contact records maintained by the university, it is known that Zhu and Yang knew each other," Hincker said. No other details were provided.
The young woman arrived at the university two weeks ago to begin studies in accounting, he said in the statement."

Oh geez that just makes this so much worse and more tragic for her family.. she barely had time to move in and find her way around campus .. I jusst cant imagine the horror her family is feeling ..my prayers to the them.
 
Can someone confirm this for me? I heard on the news this morning that she had only met this guy once she got to VA Tech. That means she had only known him for two weeks.

Also, sorry for being blunt, but after hearing about the Al Quaida beheadings I've learned that decapitation by knife takes a while. Was there no one else around that could have helped her? I know we never know how we would react in a situation like that. Possibly everyone was scared or in shock. I was just thinking that if they said they weren't arguing then someone must have been in the same area.
 
According to abc,she had just met him and became friends with him when she arrived there 2 weeks ago. She was also having coffee with a Chinese doctoral student when he did it.
 
It appeared Yang, who was from Beijing, had met her accused attacker, 25-year-old Haiyang Zhu of Ningbo, China, only recently, said Kim Beisecker, the director of Cranwell International Center, which works with international students. Zhu, a doctoral student in agricultural and applied economics, had been assisting her in adjusting to life at Tech, something the 500 Chinese students often do for new members in their community, she said. They both attended functions for international students, she said.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=6704878

Interesting comments by posters at the bottom. One of which was on the flight with her to the usa.


"She was a very sweet young woman," she said. "He was known as a polite young man."

Though they apparently didn't know each other well, school records listed Zhu as one of her emergency contacts. Beisecker said that may have been because Yang knew few people on campus.

"As best we know, she had made a fair number of friends, but only in the last week," Beisecker said.

What led to the attack is also a mystery: About seven other people who were in the coffee shop told police that the two hadn't been arguing before the attack. Beisecker said there hadn't been previous signs of trouble between them.
 
This is the first time I've seen a picture of her. What a beautiful young lady.
 
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/crime/article/TECH24_20090123-222608/187445/

"BLACKSBURG -- About 10 days before the beheading of a female graduate student from China that led to a murder charge against Haiyang Zhu, he told a fellow student at Virginia Tech that he was attracted to the woman. "He said he liked the girl very much and he wants to be her boyfriend, I think," said the friend, who requested anonymity for privacy reasons.
Zhu, 25, is charged with first-degree murder in the Wednesday slaying of Xin Yang, 22, of Beijing, who had arrived at Tech only two weeks earlier."
 
Virginia Tech beheading suspect's case sent to a grand jury

Haiyang Zhu is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Xin Yang, who was beheaded in her dormitory cafe where she met Zhu for coffee January 21st.

The case against a Virginia Tech doctoral student accused of killing a fellow student at a campus coffee shop will be turned over to a grand jury.
During a preliminary hearing on Friday, witnesses testified. One person told the court he heard a "loud, aggressive growl sound." He said Zhu was sitting beside Yang, stood up, and got on top of her. The witness said Zhu then stared at her face and started cutting her.

Virginia Tech police officer Nicole Irvine, one of the first-responders, told the judge Zhu came towards her holding Yang's head.

http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=10444230
 
I just read the comments on one of those articles where a commenter posts: after reading Chinese media, the suspect is claiming that the victim had sex with him then said it was rape and demanded money.

Of course we have no way of knowing if this is true. I have been curious as to what the motive was in this horrendous murder.
 
I just read the comments on one of those articles where a commenter posts: after reading Chinese media, the suspect is claiming that the victim had sex with him then said it was rape and demanded money.

Of course we have no way of knowing if this is true. I have been curious as to what the motive was in this horrendous murder.

Sure is convenient for him that she's not around to defend those accusations :furious:

Although I don't think anyone will buy that. Even if it were true, there's no justification for murder (except self defense) and certainly no justification for one as brutal as this.
 
Can someone confirm this for me? I heard on the news this morning that she had only met this guy once she got to VA Tech. That means she had only known him for two weeks.

Also, sorry for being blunt, but after hearing about the Al Quaida beheadings I've learned that decapitation by knife takes a while. Was there no one else around that could have helped her? I know we never know how we would react in a situation like that. Possibly everyone was scared or in shock. I was just thinking that if they said they weren't arguing then someone must have been in the same area.

Yes she had met him once she got to Virginia Tech. Also here is more info on the the killing. A judge ruled Friday that sufficient probable cause exists to take the first-degree murder case against Graduate Life Center stabbing suspect Haiyang Zhu to a grand jury.
A judge ruled Friday that sufficient probable cause exists to take the first-degree murder case against Graduate Life Center stabbing suspect Haiyang Zhu to a grand jury.

Two witnesses described the Jan. 21 stabbing of Chinese graduate student Xin Yang in detail.Corey Cox, an Au Bon Pain employee who called 911 in response to the incident, testified that Zhu made an aggressive growling sound that drew his attention.

"He had lunged at her and was already attacking her with the knife," Cox said.

Cox testified that he "jumped down behind the counter to call for 911."

He remained on the phone with emergency services until police arrived.

"Each time I'd peer over at him, he was just staring at her face, cutting away at her," Cox said.

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/13768
 

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