Zhuang Menghan, a student from China, was found dead by her roommate in their shared California flat on February 4. Authorities said Zhuang suffered from several “injuries to her upper body”.
Advertisement
Her death has prompted heated discussion about the safety of Chinese students and researchers in the United States, as they face growing hostility and discrimination due to tensions between the two countries.
Zhuang, 23, was an undergraduate in her fourth year at the California Institute of the Arts, or CalArts. She lived some 8km (5 miles) from the campus, according to local police.
Detectives believe Zhuang was murdered by a man she knew, whom she let into her flat the previous evening.
“The investigators have a video of the same male exiting Zhuang’s apartment through her second-story bedroom window on the afternoon of the day she was discovered,” an officer from the homicide bureau of the Los Angeles county sheriff’s office said yesterday.
Advertisement
In a notice issued on Wednesday, the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles urged US authorities to speed up their investigations and bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible.
The consulate said it was also maintaining close contact with family members of Zhuang – who also went by the name Emily King – and was coordinating with CalArts authorities to provide active help.