Nunawading murder suicide: Wei Hu investigated over assault on wife Yingying Zhou before her death

Police failed to follow family violence protocols over a librarian’s assault on his wife before he stabbed her to death in front of their son.

A Scotch College librarian who stabbed his wife to death before turning the knife on himself in front of their eight-year-old son was being investigated by Victoria Police over an earlier assault on her.

In releasing the findings into the September 2019 death of Yingying Zhou, the state’s top coroner, John Cain, on Monday found the mother was killed with a single stab wound to the neck by her husband, Wei Hu.

Mr Hu, 40, had pulled into the driveway of his Nunawading home, leaving Ms Zhou, 36, and their son in the car while he went inside to drop something off.

When he returned, he stabbed Ms Zhou to the neck before stabbing himself.

Their son, who witnessed the bloody attack, ran to a neighbour’s property to raise the alarm.

Paramedics rushed to the Mt Pleasant Rd property, arriving at 6.14pm, but could not revive the couple.

CCTV footage from the local McDonalds, where the family had stopped to get food minutes earlier, showed the couple having an argument.

Yingying Zhou, also known as Vivian, was killed by her estranged partner, Wei Hu.

While Judge Cain was tasked to investigate the death, it was Mr Hu’s attack on his wife months before on July 31 that he focused on, taking aim at the “deficiencies” in the police probe.

He said police protocols for family violence cases were not followed.

Key witnesses to the assault, including Ms Zhou’s son and her mother, were not interviewed.

A full statement of what happened was also not taken from Ms Zhou, with police instead allowing her to simply sign a pro forma template statement of no complaint.

“This was potentially contrary to the code of practice for the investigation of family violence cases,” Judge Cain said.

And he labelled the interview by officers of Mr Hu on August 1 as “suboptimal”, only lasting two minutes and 24 seconds.

He said a new family violence report for police to complete had also been rolled out at the time, with training on how to use it having not been completed at all stations.

Judge Cain said there was a “protracted process” police went through to bring unlawful assault charges against Mr Hu over the July attack, with authorisation only given to lay charges on September 10 — four days before she was killed.

Wei Hu had attacked his wife in a separate incident before her death.

Wei Hu took his own life after the attack.

“The available evidence suggests that further actions could have been taken to gather additional information following the incident on the 31st of July,” Judge Cain said.

“This additional information may have strengthened consideration to arresting and charging Mr Hu.”

The court heard a Victoria Police internal review following the couple’s deaths made four key recommendations to improve police practices when investigating family violence matters.

“These recommendations all address deficiencies in the police response in this matter, and related to training of police members in dealing with such incidents,” Judge Cain said.

“Victoria Police have implemented an improved administrative process, targeted at ensuring family violence-related briefs of evidence are recorded more clearly and monitored more closely.”

Forensics and detectives at the scene of Zhou’s death in Nunawading. Picture: Sarah Matray

Mr Hu, a library technician at Scotch College in Hawthorn, and Ms Zhou, married in Melbourne in November 2005, after meeting online two years earlier.

She moved to Australia from her home town of Shanghai in China to be with him four months after he proposed to her in April 2005.

Their son was born in June 2011, with her parents moving to Melbourne to help care for their grandson the following year.

Her parents attended the coronial hearing, wiping away tears as the findings were read out.

Mr Zhou told the coroner of the family’s “heart wrenching” loss of their only child, who he described as “kind, quiet, warm and easygoing”.

He and his wife will never forget the day police knocked on their door to say their daughter had been killed, he said.

“The police officer brought our eight-year-old grandson,” he said. “When he appeared in front of us, he was terrified. We suppressed our grief and comforted him.”

For 24-hour domestic violence support, call the national hotline 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or on MensLine on 1800 600 636.