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The Two Ex-Newcastle University Chinese Students Named: One was Asphyxiated

by Christina 123 | August 10, 2008 at 05:27 am

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Police today have released the names of the two Chinese students found dead in a house in Newcastle's West End. The couple had met as students at Newcastle University and were locally perceived as very pleasant and popular in their community. Police so far have no idea of the motive, but say the female, Xi Zhou, known to her work colleagues at Wagamama as "Ci Ci", had been brutally smothered.

A Northumbria police spokesman said the victims, whose bodies were found in the West End area of the city, were 25-year-old Xi Zhou and her boyfriend, Zhen Xing Yang, also 25.

The couple's bodies were discovered in separate rooms at a ground-floor flat in Croydon Road on Saturday.

Detectives say they so far have no known motive for the "savage and brutal attack".

So severe were the head injuries of both victims that police were unable to ascertain what kind of weapon had been used to kill them.

Detective Superintendent Steve Wade, who is leading the murder inquiry, said the pair suffered defence wounds, but he would not say whether the killer had tied them up or whether there was a sexual element to the murders.

A postmortem examination revealed that Xi may also have been suffocated.

Wade said the couple had been discovered by a former tenant and two friends, who visited the address on Saturday afternoon.

"On entering the flat and searching the front bedroom, they discovered the body of their female friend and contacted the police," he said at a press conference. Officers then found Zhen's body in the back bedroom.

Wade described the "unpleasant" crime scene as very bloodstained, and said the murderer must have been covered in blood after the attack.

Police are baffled about the motive of a "gruesome" murder. Two Chinese persons, believed to be students have been found dead at a house in Newcastle with head wounds.

Murder squad detectives today said the victims, who were discovered in a flat in Croydon Road in the West End of the city yesterday afternoon at 4.30pm, suffered “significant head injuries”.

The body of a Chinese man was found lying on a bed in the rear bedroom of the property and the body of a Chinese woman was found lying on a bed in the front bedroom, they said.

A neighbour close to the scene, who did not want to be identified, said: “I think they were students. They have not been here for long and they just kept themselves to themselves.”