Murdered Chinese couple’s life came to a brutal end

Aug 12 2008 by Paul James, The Journal

POLICE have released video footage of the two Chinese students bludgeoned to death in Newcastle at the weekend. Click here to watch the video.

A SENIOR detective last night made an impassioned plea for help to catch the killers of a Chinese couple found murdered on the beds of their Newcastle home.

Northumbria Police murder specialist Detective Superintendent Steve Wade said his team had no motive for the “savage and brutal” killings of graduates Xi Zhou and her boyfriend Zhen Xing Yang.

He told a press conference that the murder scene, at Croydon Road in Fenham, was one of the “most unpleasant” in his career and the condition of their ground-floor Tyneside flat led him to believe there could be more than one killer.

Because there had been no forced entry to the flat, and no sign of a robbery, he said the couple might have known the killers and allowed them into their home. They may have lain dead for two days – the last anyone saw of either of the 25-year-olds was when Miss Zhou left work at the city centre Wagamama restaurant last Thursday and she did not arrive for work on the Friday.

Nothing is known about their movements between then and 4.30pm on Saturday, when three friends of the couple entered their home through a back window and discovered Mr Yang’s body.

They fled the flat and it was only when police arrived that they realised there were two dead, Mr Wade said.

He described the couple as “nice, hard-working, respectable people” and appealed for anyone who knew them to help police piece together their way of life and movements from last week.

Xi Zhou, known as Ci Ci, was lying on a bed in the front bedroom wearing daytime clothes. A post-mortem examination revealed she had died of extensive head injuries and had tried to fight off her attacker.

Zhen Xing Yang was found in nightclothes on the bed in the back bedroom, also with defence wounds, having died of head injuries and lost a “significant” amount of blood.

Mr Wade said two murder weapons had been used – a knife and a sharp-edged instrument – but he would not say if either victim had been tied up or if there was a sexual element to the deaths.

Police and community leaders are now attempting to reassure the 10,000 Chinese students in the North East that they are safe.

Mr Wade said: “We have a very experienced team of detectives working on this case. We have the support of the community and the area command, and the people of Newcastle, to try and catch whoever is responsible for this horrendous crime.

“Somebody knows something about this. I would imagine, given the amount of blood at the scene, somebody has come home blood-stained. Somebody must know something out there.

“It doesn’t matter how small that piece of information is. Myself and my officers will work round the clock to catch those responsible. I am convinced we will bring those responsible to justice.”

It is believed Xi Zhou walked home from Wagamama after leaving at 3.47pm on Thursday, the last known sighting of her. Unusually, police said, she did not turn up for work at midday next day.

Police said the last contact anyone had with her boyfriend was when he spoke to a female friend by mobile at 2.38pm last Wednesday, giving her no cause for concern. Mr Wade said: “We have no known motive for this savage and brutal attack.

“They are nice, hard-working, respectable people who have come to the UK for the best of reasons, to get a good education. They have both worked hard while they have been at Newcastle University, both done extremely well, graduated with good degrees.

“There is nothing we are aware of as to why these two people should be targeted.”

POLICE have released video footage of the two Chinese students bludgeoned to death in Newcastle at the weekend. Click here to watch the video.