Friends doubt suspect's story in killing of B.C. model

by Amy Judd | July 12, 2008 at 01:25 pm

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Friends of the model killed in Shanghai have doubts about the story told by an 18-year-old Chinese man who has now confessed to stalking and slaying her.

Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, reported Friday that Chen Jun was arrested in Xuancheng City, several hundred kilometres west of Shanghai, around 8:15 a.m. local time.

Diana O'Brien, 22, of Saltspring Island, B.C., was found dead in her apartment building in Shanghai on Monday, two weeks after leaving for Shanghai for a three-month modelling contract with a talent agency.

Chinese police said Chen confessed to following O'Brien into her apartment Sunday night with the intention of robbing her and killed her when she resisted. The suspect then fled to another city in a nearby province before leaving for Xuancheng City, according to police.

However, some of O'Brien's friends told CBC News on Friday that she would have run if threatened and would not have tried to protect her possessions.

While the investigation in China continues, Joel Berry, O'Brien's boyfriend of five years, said he just wanted to bring her body home.

"Hopefully it's just one more step closer to her coming home," Berry said of the arrest of the suspect.

"It's kind of tough to plan a memorial for her when you don't really know where she is and how close she is to coming home," he said Friday.

"It just seems like we're so out of touch with it and helpless really. So, I think, just to have her back would kind of empower us a little bit and [we'll be] able to find some closure."