Murdered Chinese woman Qi Yu’s parents speak out in emotional statement
The father of a young Chinese woman killed by her Sydney housemate says his grieving wife “wants to end her life every day and follow our daughter.”
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The father of a young Chinese woman killed by her Sydney housemate says his grieving wife “wants to end her life every day and follow our daughter.”
Campsie man Shuo Dong had a sexual motive to kill Qi Yu two years ago, and the then 19-year-old searched the “penalty for murder in Australia“ on his phone days beforehand, the Supreme Court heard.
The 21-year-old, who was in Australia on a bridging visa, has pleaded guilty to murder and claims he was suffering schizophrenia when he dumped Ms Yu’s body in bushland in Sydney‘s upper north shore.
The 28-year-old’s devastated parents suspect Dong feared being repatriated to China so badly he preferred jail time for murdering their “intelligent, beautiful, lovely, lively and innocent girl.”
“Our only child, thrown into the bush, left exposed so that all evidence would be destroyed,” Zhihe Yu and Qin He wrote.
“He knew that the cost of murder in Australia was much smaller than that in China. He planned to cheat justice in Australia.”
Ms Yu’s partially naked body was found on the side of the M1 Motorway near Mount Ku-ring-gai train station nearly seven weeks after she disappeared from her Campsie unit on June 8, 2018.
Despite moving to Sydney in 2009 to study electrical engineering, Ms Yu still spoke to her mother daily on social media app WeChat, and the last message she sent to Ms He when her house suddenly went dark that night was: “OMG. We‘re having a power outage … something is not right.”
“The precious life of our daughter was ruthlessly taken away,” Ms Yu’s parents said.
“Her 10 years of hard work suddenly ended in vain and a bright future was ruined. What was the reason?! Why? Why? Why?”
The Shanghai couple said their daughter had pitied Dong – a sacked tradesman who said his student Visa had been cancelled – and she showed him sympathy as she’d also been a teenager when she first came to Australia alone.
A psychiatric report revealed that after losing his construction job installing windows, Dong decided to move out of the Campsie apartment because he was worried Ms Yu would report him to the immigration department.
The cannabis user, who is currently taking antipsychotic medication behind bars, has cried while telling a psychiatrist: “I didn’t want this to happen. I feel very guilty and very, very ashamed.”
Dong had moved in less than three weeks earlier and allegedly revealed to a workmate plans to ask his landlord out on a dinner date, saying “he might have a chance with her.”
In November Dong claimed he’d had a sexual relationship with his victim, but investigators said Ms Yu hadn’t expressed any romantic interest in her tenant.
Police allege they found what appeared to be bloodstained underwear in Ms Yu’s bedroom and Dong later tried to bite his own fingernails off to destroy DNA evidence.
“Qi Yu Was found without pants on her body, why? What terrible thing has the offender done to our innocent daughter?” her parents wrote.
Mr Yu said the tragedy has ruined their family, while his wife’s “body and mind have reached the edge of collapse.”
“She washes her face with tears every day, and wakes up in nightmares almost every day,” he said.
“She wants to end her life every day and follow our daughter.”
Police discovered large amounts of blood in Ms Yu’s Campsie property and her car, which Dong drove to Mount Ku-ring-gai before searching Google Maps for directions home between 8.30pm and midnight on the night she disappeared, court documents reveal.
Agreed facts show Dong lied to detectives while claiming he’d spent that night with his girlfriend – a woman who had travelled overseas from Melbourne in February that year.
When cops told the former kitchen hand he was a suspect, he collapsed and had a fit at Campsie Police Station before being hospitalised for three days.
Dong, who claimed he was being followed by a ghost at the time, has reported hearing voices while behind bars.
Court documents state in January Dong threatened to kill another inmate while stabbing him with a “shiv” during a fight, and his sentencing hearing will resume next month.