Virginia Tech Beheading – A Virginia Tech graduate student from China was killed in a savage beheading – decapitated with a kitchen knife while drinking coffee in a campus cafe – by another graduate student who not only knew her, he was also listed as one of her emergency contacts.
Xin Yang, 22, was beheaded Wednesday night in a brutal attack just two weeks after arriving at the campus from Beijing on January 8 to begin studying accounting, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.
Her accused attacker, 25-year-old Haiyang Zhu of Ningbo, China, knew the victim but no motive for the slaying has been determined, Flinchum said. School records showed that Haiyang was listed as one of Xin’s emergency contacts.
Haiyang was charged with first-degree murder and was being held without bond at the Montgomery County Jail. His attorney, Stephanie Cox, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Haiyang and Xin had been having coffee in a cafe in the Graduate Life Centre, where Xin was living. About seven other people who were in the coffee shop told police that the two hadn’t been arguing before the attack.
Police received two 911 calls shortly after 7 pm on Wednesday local time, Flinchum said, and were on the scene in a little more than a minute to take Haiyang into custody.
Flinchum said Haiyang was not known to the campus police or to the university team that deals with mentally disturbed students.
University officials said Haiyang arrived on campus last fall and was a PhD student in agricultural and applied economics.
The stabbing was the first killing on campus since a mass killing on campus in 2007, when a student gunman shot 32 people and then took his own life.
“An act of violence like this brings back memories of April 16,” university President Charles Steger said. “I have no doubt that many of us feel especially distraught.”
And that’s the latest news on the Virginia Tech beheading.
Tags: haiyang zhu, murder, virginia tech beheading, virginia tech decapitated, virginia tech decapitation, virginia tech murder
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
[...] http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew…1210/20081210/ http://a11news.com/1340/virginia-tech-beheading/ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,443738,00.html [...]
March 8th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
[...] a man cut off his estranged wife’s head, and in the third case, a foreign graduate student cut off the head of a fellow foreign graduate [...]
May 29th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
While the loss of a life is a tragedy, I find the lack of action on the part of the patrons, managers, and workers inside this coffee shop horrific.
People scattered, and left that woman to die at her attackers hands. No one tried to stop him? It was a coffee shop…if you are afraid of him, lob bottles of syrup at him, overpower him, take the knife, save the girls life.
That not a single person did anything other than call 911 makes me sad for this girl and her family. She died a horrific death, with people watching, doing nothing….
June 1st, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I am disgusted and appalled at the cowardliness and utter lack of humanity of the witnesses. Their collective lack of valor would put a herd of cattle to shame.
“Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once.” from the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.
Witnesses, perhaps this terrible incident can serve as a wake up call for you. This is your chance to re-examine your own soul and place in this world. I hope you are successful.
June 7th, 2009 at 9:46 am
has anyone ever been in shock? can you imagine seeing such a sight? i would like to think i could be a hero in such a situation, but the utter horror i believe would have me paralized with shock and fear. i am so sad for the victim’s family and for her, but, i also prey that the witnesses of this event can sleep and don’t loose thier own life to post tramtic stress and guilt.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:00 am
[...] slain Thursday at a Jefferson National Forest campground that is a popular hangout for students, Virginia Tech Beheading 24 Jan 2009. There had been no argument, no shouting" when the young woman was attacked, [...]
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:01 am
…Note to self: NEVER go to Virginia Tech. That school is having a really bad last couple of years.
Anyways, this is such a sad story. I can’t believe that no one stopped it, shock or not, someone should have snapped out of the shock and done something to help her. If everyone there had gone after him, this beautiful girl would still be alive.
December 21st, 2009 at 5:19 am
A terrible story.