Zhu Haiyang (朱海洋 in Chinese),once hailed as a model student by his previous school--Shanghai Ocean University, is now a first-degree murder. Zhu Haiyang was alleged of decapitating fellow Chinese national, Yang Xin (杨欣 in Chinese）using a kitchen knife in Virginia Tech yesterday January 23, 2009.
At approximately 7:00 pm Wednesday (0000 GMT Thursday), Yang Xin, a 22-year-old graduate student from Beijing, was killed at an Au Bon Pain cafe on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, university officials said.
They added that emergency contact records suggest that Yang and the student who murdered her, Zhu Haiyang from Ningbo, China, knew each other. According to officials, witnesses said Zhu, 25, attacked Yang with a knife.
"There were seven witnesses in the cafe. There had been no argument, no shouting" when the young woman was attacked, said Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski, confirming that Yang had been decapitated.
The Collegiate Times, the university's newspaper, said police received a 911 emergency call minutes after the assault and the officer who arrived at the scene found Yang's head had been cut off. The murder weapon, a large kitchen knife, was found at the scene.
In a copy of a police affidavit published by the Collegiate Times, the officer said that when she arrived at the scene she found Zhu holding Yang's head in his hand.
"This is horrible and tragic. Especially when we know that Virginia Tech has got its share of hardship and horror," Owczarski said.
[...]
Zhu was charged with first-degree murder and was being held at a county jail. He had not had a record with university or local police, the school indicated.
Yang had arrived at Virginia Tech in early January to begin studies in accounting. Zhu was a PhD graduate student in agriculture and applied economics. [AFP]
Pictured: Zhu Haiyang was photographed on his convocation at Shanghai Ocean University (上海海洋大学，the six large Chinese characters in the pic) which was calligraphied by Jiang Zemin (the three smaller Chinese), the former Chinese President.
This is an extreme sad sorry for me, because we know something about Zhu before from a close friend who once studied together with him at the afore-mentioned Shanghai university. Although Haiyang is a talented student, especially doing very well in English, his private life is a bit messy. Because he is handsome, Zhu Haiyang was attracted to some of female course mates when doing his Master Degree, several of whom even might have one-night stand with him. Zhu's father is a Professor teaching at a University in China.
Zhu Haiyang Photo at QQ Qzone