Murder Comes to Virginia Tech Campus Once Again, Xin Yang, 22, Decapitated By Haiyang Zhu

Murder has reared its ugly head on the campus of Virginia Tech once again. This time, Xin Yang, 22, is dead and Haiyang Zhu, 25, is in custody and police say the weapon involved was a knife.

Xin Yang, a 22-year-old graduate student from Beijing, was killed at an Au Bon Pain cafe on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, university officials said.
They added that emergency contact records suggest that Yang and the student who murdered her, Haiyang Zhu from Ningbo, China, knew each other. According to officials, witnesses said Zhu, 25, attacked Yang with a knife.

According to media reports, the murder occurred near a very busy part of the campus. Shortly after 7:00 Wednesday evening police were called to the 1st floor Graduate Life Center and found a female Asian, international graduate student on the floor with stab wounds, already dead.

They also found a male Asian grad student nearby and took him into custody without incident. Police that he told officers that he did it. They said that there were also several witnesses. Police said that the two obviously knew each other, but they’re not sure how well. They say the victim lived in the Graduate Life Center.

Virginia Tech officials responded sending out alerts and emails. Between 30,000 and 40,000 went out. Students and others at the campus were told there had been a murder and to stay away from the scene. The area has now been cleared and students are now allowed back in the GLC.