GUILTY IA - Tong Shao, 20, Ames, 8 September 2014

[PastTense]

Almost four weeks after her friends last heard from her and a week after her body was found in the back of a car, police do not know where Tong Shao died or exactly when she perished.

But, Iowa City Police Lt. Mike Brotherton said Friday investigators have been able to create a timeline leading up to when the 20-year-old Chinese Iowa State University student was last seen alive. The same holds true for her boyfriend and person of interest in the case, 23-year-old University of Iowa student Xiangnan Li, who is believed to have returned to China.

“We’ve been able to trace the whereabouts of where she was … in the time frame from (Iowa City) to Ames,” Brotherton said. “We’re pretty sure we can account for her whereabouts up until she was last seen alive.”

http://www.kcrg.com/subject/news/police-timeline-in-shao-disappearance-death-taking-shape-20141003

 

[PastTense]

Iowa State University community holds memorial for Shao

Gentle.

As one of Tong Shao’s friends read messages and memories written for their lost classmate, one word was repeated, again and again: gentle.

A few hundred students, Iowa State University administrators and a few community members gathered on the south Campanile lawn Friday night at a memorial organized by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association to honor and remember the 20-year-old student one week after her body was found in the trunk of her car in Iowa City.

http://amestrib.com/news/isu-community-holds-memorial-shao

 

[tarabull]

:candle:

Let there be JUSTICE for such a gentle soul - Justice for Shao!

:justice:

 

[PastTense]

The autopsy for the Iowa State Student whose body was found in a trunk in Iowa City in September has been completed.

Mike Hensch, administrator for the Johnson County Medical Examiner’s Office, said the autopsy for 20-year-old Tong Shao has been turned over to the Iowa City Police Department and the Johnson County Attorney’s Office. However, there was little else about the autopsy that Hensch could share, including Shao’s cause and manner of death...

The police department has identified Xiangnan Li, a Chinese international student at the University of Iowa who has been described by police as Shao’s boyfriend, as a person of interest in the case. Li is believed to have returned to China shortly after Shao’s disappearance.

On Oct. 10, police filed two search warrants related to Li in Johnson County. However, those warrants remain under seal.

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/...owa-state-student-found-in-iowa-city-20141110

I am surprised no one has been following the case (in the Chinese media, etc). Is it possible to disappear in China the way Xiangnan Li seems to have?

 

[PastTense]

A search warrant affidavit filed in connection with the disappearance of Iowa State University student Tong Shao reveals Xiangnan Li — Shao's boyfriend and the person of interest in her death — overheard Shao talking with another man about him and saying things that “were not nice.”

This conversation took place two weeks before the 20-year-old was reported missing to the Ames Police Department and five days before she reportedly sent a text message using Li's phone, indicating she was taking a bus to Minnesota. Police seem to believe that text message came from Li, not Shao.

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/...ked-flight-two-days-before-emergency-20150108

Again no more information about where Xiangnan Li disappeared to.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.press-citizen.com/story/...a-state-student-missing-voluntarily/21411383/

Iowa City police said Tuesday they have finished their investigation and have turned the case over to the Johnson County Attorney's Office. The Johnson County Attorney's Office has not returned phone calls to the Press-Citizen...

According to the search warrant information, Ames police determined Li took a flight from Cedar Rapids Sept. 8 and arrived in China Sept. 10. Flight arrangements were made Sept. 6, two days before Shao's friends reported last having contact with her...

The documents state that Ames police had determined that none of Li's friends or family had seen him arriving back in China, and such absence was unusual for Li.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://amestrib.com/news/cause-manner-shao-s-death-released

Iowa State University student Tong Shao died of asphyxiation and her death was officially ruled a homicide, authorities confirmed Thursday...

Officials do not know the exact date and time of Shao’s death, Hensch said. On her death certificate, they are listed as Sept. 26, 2014, at 11:38 p.m., which is when Iowa City police officers discovered her body in the trunk of her car.

“In Iowa, it’s perfectly acceptable to put the date and time found as the date and time of death, even though we know that that’s not actually the date of death,” Hensch said.

 

[mikkismom]

Hotel Connected to Tong Shao Murder

http://www.cbs2iowa.com/news/featur.../hotel-connected-tong-shao-murder-33273.shtml

 

[OkieGranny]

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/...d-at-nevada-hotel-prior-to-her-death-20150115

A warrant filed by Ames Police Det. Chad Lovig details that 20-year-old Iowa State University student Tong Shao was seen alive at the Budget Inn and Suites in Nevada days before her boyfriend — and person of interest in her death — Xiangnan Li boarded a plane for China, a flight he booked during their stay at the hotel.

Furthermore, when Shao’s body was discovered in the trunk of her car in Iowa City — parked near Li’s apartment — her head was wrapped in the same brand of towel used at the Budget Inn and Suites...

An inventory list included with the warrant shows the police seized Li’s credit card information and prior visit records, visitor records for Room 218, customer records, two pillow cases and “various swabs” taken by the Division of Criminal Investigation.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

"Killing in the heartland; heartbreak in China"

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/03/us/iowa-killing-chinese-student/index.html

It's been more than six months since Tong's mother and father were notified of her death. They remained quiet in their sorrow and figured U.S and Chinese authorities would find their daughter's killer. They decided to speak up now, hoping it might force investigators to do more.

"We are miserable, as the killer is still at large," the father says.

The last person to see Tong alive, police records show, was her 23-year-old boyfriend, Xiangnan Li, a Chinese student studying business at the University of Iowa. Iowa authorities say they want to talk with Li. He and Tong stayed in a hotel together in early September. The same weekend, police say, Li bought a one-way plane ticket to China and vanished.

 

[Ray_of_hope]

Killing in the heartland; heartbreak in China
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/03/us/iowa-killing-chinese-student/index.html

 

[PastTense]

Chinese authorities have arrested a former University of Iowa international student in the death of a woman whose body was found in a car trunk in Iowa City last fall, following a multijurisdictional investigation spanning two continents.

Iowa City police said Monday night that Xiangnan Li, 23, surrendered himself to police in China last month, and on June 19 authorities in Wenzhou, China, arrested Li for intentional homicide in the death of 20-year-old Tong Shao.

China does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S., and Li will be prosecuted in his home country, authorities say.

http://www.press-citizen.com/story/...-ui-student-arrested-china-homicide/29493805/

 

[luckyseven]

Yay! So glad to see he was arrested. Interesting that he surrendered himself. Hopefully this can be a big step towards peace for her family.

 

[PastTense]

However (Iowa City Police Detective) Diersen says he is confident Chinese investigators will bring justice. "That was the purpose for their delegations of investigators and prosecutors coming over to work with us a few weeks ago," said Diersen. In early June, seven Chinese investigators were in Iowa working with Iowa investigators, visiting the crime scene and gathering the facts and details so they can prosecute Li.

Lyness says Chinese prosecutors were very impressed with the way our lead investigators handled analyzing the details in this case .

"That was actually kind of their parting words to us that 'We want to make sure Tong Shao has justice,'" said Lyness. "I would say that when we started the process, I was very leery and I really questions rather this would really actually happen and rather it was work making the efforts to request them to work on this.

http://www.kwwl.com/story/29447977/...orities-will-bring-justice-in-tong-shaos-case

 

[GigTu]

http://www.press-citizen.com/story/...-ui-student-arrested-china-homicide/29493805/

He will be prosecuted in his home country. While I doubt we'll be kept abreast of the outcome, I am confident the punishment with will be severe and torturous, and eventually final. An eye for an eye. I'm all for it.

 

[PastTense]

December 24. A Chinese student who killed his girlfriend in the US and fled to his home country is due to be prosecuted by Chinese courts. Li Xiangnan has been charged with the killing of his girlfriend Shao Tong in the US, the Wenzhou City People's Procuratorate said....

"Li deliberately killed his girlfriend out of affective problems in the relationship. The facts were ascertained and evidence sufficient, and the defendant shall be prosecuted for intentional homicide," the procuratorate said in a statement. According to Chinese criminal law, punishments for intentional homicide range from the death penalty to imprisonment for 10 years, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

http://www.business-standard.com/ar...-killing-girlfriend-in-us-115122400837_1.html

 

[PastTense]

The trial for the former University of Iowa student who is accused of killing his girlfriend, former Iowa State student Tong Shao, in 2014, began Wednesday in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, and there were media reports that Shao’s boyfriend had pleaded guilty.

The Ames Tribune was unable to confirm the reports of a guilty plea being entered in the case late Wednesday, and prosecutors with the Johnson County Attorney’s Office and Story County Attorney’s Office also were unable to confirm a guilty plea had been entered.

http://amestrib.com/news/trial-accused-killer-isu-student-underway-china

Shao's father is calling for the death penalty for Li. In a meeting with Li's family, Shao's father reportedly said the family begged for forgiveness and offered to pay him off for his daughter's death.

http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Father-Wants-Death-Penalty-for-Murder-of-Tong-Shao-373193701.html

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Verdict process underway in Tong Shao murder case

http://amestrib.com/news/verdict-process-underway-tong-shao-murder-case

Five days after his trial, the former University of Iowa student accused killing former Iowa State student Tong Shao could wait anywhere from a week to six months to learn his fate.

According to Dupuich, Iowa authorities did not receive an exact “word-for-word” translation of the trial, so they did not have every detail. However, she said Li did not deny strangling Shao, or causing her death, but did contest that her slaying was premeditated. Dupuich said even though Li did not contest to ending Shao’s life, it was not the same “guilty plea” that is thought of in the American legal system. However, Gonzalez said that this took place in a civil case between Li and Shao’s family prior to the criminal trial.

Gonzalez said Li’s sentence could range anywhere from 20 years to life in prison. Media reports originally said that Li could face execution, but Dupuich said that in the Chinese system, cooperation is taken into account when deciding sentencing. So because of his cooperation, and the fact that he turned himself, Li is unlikely to receive the death penalty, Dupuich said.

 

[PastTense]

IOWA CITY — Former University of Iowa student Xiangnan Li was convicted of murdering his girlfriend Tong Shao and has been sentenced to life in prison.

Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness confirmed the verdict and sentencing on Wednesday. She learned of the news Wednesday afternoon from the Department of Justice, she said.

“I’m very happy they convicted him and also that he got the same sentence he would have gotten if convicted here of first-degree murder,” Lyness said.

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/n...fe-in-prison-for-murder-of-tong-shao-20160622

 

[PastTense]

An interesting article on the investigation:
http://www.press-citizen.com/story/...w-tong-shaos-killer-brought-justice/86546758/