A 22 years old female Virginia Tech student was fatally stabbed in a school student center, Graduate Life Center (GLC) where the girl resides. The victim is Yang Xin, a graduate student in Accounting from Beijing. Yang Xin was known as a diligent student who graduated from Memorial University of New Foundland in Canada. Yang earned a BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) in merely two years. After graduation Yang interned at a Subway store as assistant manager while preparing for GMAT, the entrance exam for graduate study in Business School. Yang arrived the States only days ago on Jan 8, 2009 to start her study at VT.
The killer is Zhu Haiyang, a graduate assistant in the Agriculture and Applied Economics Department. Zhu comes from Ningbo in Zhejiang Province. The killer was educated in Shanghai. According to posts on Internet forums, the killer got know the victim when he picked up the girl at the airport, arranged by the VT Chinese student association as a volunteer service for new students. The duo were seen together at the Au Bon Pain restaurant on the first floor of GLC around 7 pm Wednesday evening. There had been no sign of argument. Then the girl called 911; then the killer stabbed the girl. When police arrived, they found the murderer with the knife, and the girl, ..., decapitated. Officer Nicole Irvine who responded to the 911 call 'observed the suspect holding the head of the victim in his hand (Police Search Warrant Affidavit).' The killer has a personal web space at
QQ titled 'Ocean's Ocean'.
The killer's apartment management staff described him as "rude and belligerent". Will Segar, the landlord said Zhu only came to his attention because of his bellicose interaction with those around him. Segar even talked to a Blacksburg police after he observed Zhu harassing other people. However, the officer told Segar there was nothing he could do, and suggested Segar talked to the international affairs at VT. Segar went ahead, but did not receive any 'useful advice on how to deal with Zhu.'
The killer's academic background was questioned too. Zhu graduated from a little known college after the Chinese government expand the college enrollment by ten times (from 600,000 per year in late 80s to 6 million per year in the 90a). His fellow Chinese friends praised him for English skills, but both his academic adviser Denise Mainville and the department head Kevin Boyle murmured on his academic performance when inquired by reporters. The vetting process of VT is obviously flawed to have admitted
any students from these kind of nobody-heard-of schools. Nonetheless, a VT nod gave the killer a virtual mandate to act at will and a false sense of entitlement. It's possible. as speculated on the Net, the killer was angered so easily by hearing a single word 'no'. It's possible though, the killer had already been scolded by the Tech and had been facing a disgraceful dismissal, which might prompt him to execute one last stunt.
Although there's no easy way to prevent a sick murder from acting crazy thoughts into action, some alleged that the role
the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars (ACSS) at Virginia Tech played was facilitated by the killer. People on online forums accused them to have arranged the killer to pick up the girl from the airport. The girl was also arranged to live in the killer's apartment for four days before she was assigned a school housing unit at GLC, where she was killed. After the incident, the ACSS promptly sent out a message barring anyone from disclosing any information. The ACSS also deleted all relevant discussions at a maillist and an online forum exclusive to Chinese students and scholars at VT. The killer has been known as an enthusiastic member of the ACSS, an official organization sponsored by the communism government. Some see the ACSS, an organization supposed to benefit all Chinese students, was utilized by a small group of greedy former communists (or communists wannabes) with personal interest. Simply put, any such communism outpost should have been banned from ground of college campus.
The victim's mother in Beijing was notified by telephone last night.
