From Coffee To Decapitation
January 23, 2009 by Jaded
Haiyang Zhu and Xin Yang
Blacksburg, VA–Xin Yang, 22, hadn’t been in the United States very long…the graduate student from Bejing arrived at the Virginia Tech Campus on January 8. Xin Yang just completed her second day of class and was having coffee with a friend on campus at the Au Bon Pain cafe on Wednesday evening, when her life was brutally cut short.
The friend, 25-year-old Haiyang Zhu, a doctoral student in agricultural and applied economics, had been helping Yang adjust to life at the college. Though the two did not know each other well, school records listed Zhu as one of her emergency contacts.
While having coffee, Zhu attacked Yang with a large kitchen knife. He decapitated her right there in the cafe. She never saw it coming. There were at least seven witnesses to the attack…all of them stated that there had been no arguing between the two before the attack, no shouting, nothing.
Officers arrived about a minute after receiving the first 911 call. Dispatch says they received two 911 calls about a woman being assaulted. The first officer on the scene said that when she arrived at the cafe she found Zhu holding Yang’s head in his hand.
The motive behind the attack is still unknown, but it was discovered that on January 7, Zhu wrote on a Chinese-language blog that he had been so frustrated over stock losses and other problems that he thought ‘only of killing someone or committing suicide’. If that was the case, you should’ve chose the latter, Zhu.
Zhu, also from China, had been a student at Virginia Tech since the beginning of the fall semester last year. There was no knowledge he suffered any mental problems…he had not been under review by the police department or the university’s threat assessment team. He has no previous record with the university or local police. Now he does. Haiyang Zhu has been charged with first-degree murder.
I doubt that anyone needs to be reminded, but in April 2007, Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech student, shot and killed 32 fellow classmates and teachers before killing himself. VT has certainly had their share of horror and tragedy.
This article will be updated as more information is made available.
1:03 pm on January 23rd, 2009
I hadn’t seen a picture of her yet, Jaded. Thanks for posting it. She was lovely.
I can’t even fathom how a coffee with a friend can turn so deadly with NO outward signs of anything wrong. It boggles my mind. Of course, I also can’t fathom how you can completely sever a person’s head so quickly with a kitchen knife. Hell’s bells, that’s one sharp knife or one strong dude.
Rest in peace, Xin Yang. I’m sorry your new life at University was cut so horrifically short.
1:17 pm on January 23rd, 2009
What. The. Fuck.
1:20 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Geezus! I am so tired of the damn whackos of the world
1:22 pm on January 23rd, 2009
She was. I don’t think anyone knows much about her, she was here for such a short time.
1:28 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Maybe he wanted sushi.
1:33 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Was that meant to be funny? It’s not fucking funny. A beautiful young girl was brutaly murdered by some batshit crazy asshole and you want to make jokes??
1:39 pm on January 23rd, 2009
This might almost have been funny, had she been Japanese. Almost.
1:44 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Well said April. What the fuck does sushi have to do with anything?
1:49 pm on January 23rd, 2009
It was truly a tasteless “joke”. Possibly racist?? Just disgusting. And it takes a lot to disgust me.
1:49 pm on January 23rd, 2009
You see it’s this kind of crap that makes me afraid to go to uni.! I can’t even imagine what could cause someone to go all…well Crazy…on someone who they had only just met.
I wanted to study abroad but now I don’t know what would happen. I would meet someone to help me and they would take my life.
BTW Jury: That was tasteless. Just tasteless! Pathetic JackAss!
1:55 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Wow that is crazy. The beheading and the VT coincidence.
I wonder what kind of support programs VT has for immigrant students? If they don’t have any I suggest thy get some now. If they have some, I suggest they revamp. now.
To the sushi joker:
seriously? c’mon man, be bigger than that.
1:57 pm on January 23rd, 2009
That is a nawesome thought. It seems like they would look into that. Maybe NOW they’ll open their eyes.
1:57 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Jury:
Have a heart and don’t try to be funny cause you ARE NOT
YOU, Jury, sicken me, but this is not about you,
Terrible story and to Xin Yang’s family, my prayers and thoughts are with you and she did not certainly deserve that. Rest in Peace Xin Yang
2:07 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Just fucking weird…
2:10 pm on January 23rd, 2009
It was tasteless humor, sure… but don’t lose your head over it.
2:15 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Yeah, even as a tasteless joke, which I am a fan of, it failed on all levels.
2:15 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Better.
2:32 pm on January 23rd, 2009
“Her alleged attacker, Haiyang Zhu, also from China, was arrested at the scene by an officer who arrived less than a minute after receiving an emergency call.
On January 7, he wrote on a Chinese-language blog he had been so frustrated over stock losses and other problems that he thought “only of killing someone or committing suicide”.
Miss Xin, 22, was believed to have been having coffee with Haiyang in the campus Au Bon Pain cafe.
Seven witnesses from the cafe have said there was no argument or shouting prior to the killing on Wednesday at 7pm.”
A little more update, he should have committed suicide. Twisted fuck they found him holding her head. I’m gagging.
2:34 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Mhmmm….this one if a little too close to home for me. I know people that go to VT and hearing this …not good. I cannot get over crimes like this that happen on University campuses. You would like to think that students could feel safe on their own terf, but not so much. It sux, it really really sux. My prayers go out to the girl’s family. Bless teh strudents at Virginia Tech, God knows they have been thorugh a lot this past year.
2:36 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Damn, I woudn’t want to see you on anyone’s jury.
2:49 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Please don’t let this stop you studying abroad. You are infinitely more likely to get killed in traffic than at the hands of a fellow student. And the world needs more people who have challenged their natural ethnocentrism and tested their own mettle on foreign soil. Believe me.
2:50 pm on January 23rd, 2009
I can’t believe this was possibly over “stock losses”.
The dude should have offed himself.
2:57 pm on January 23rd, 2009
They make it sound as if he just chopped off her head. How long must that have taken? How horrified were the other customers? Ewww. This poor woman.
2:58 pm on January 23rd, 2009
That was almost funny (only cuz it was directed at me and not at the expense of a dead girl).
BTW – I have been sitting in the dark at work and my eyes are buggin’ out. I can read back at all of my typos in the past couple of days. Maybe I should get someone over here to fix my lights… Ya think.
2:58 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Me neither. I have heard of students that had money to play the stock market before, especially in the Economics department; but these students are usually the same ones that know what comes easy goes easy and that they can always bounce back.
He should have not been worrying about making money yet. He should have been worrying about learning, and there is a lesson in losing……
3:03 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Wow! That just blew me away! That poor girl! And what a fucking psycho! I feel so bad for her family. I don’t think there’s anything left that can shock me now! I’ve heard just about all of it, the craziness of our world!
Tasteless humor.
Deranged humor!
Sometimes you guys really scare me! LOL
3:32 pm on January 23rd, 2009
When I saw him on TV being led off by the cops, it looked as if he was smiling, like he was enjoying his sick, demented act.
Hey, in this twisted world in which we live, I find demented humor a needed outlet, as well as a way to relate to such heinous crimes.
3:32 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Yeah, the secret is to make fun of other members and the sickos that pull horrible shit like this. A few times we have gone the wrong way and made fun of the victims, but usually our members set us straight and we apologize.
Coping mechanisms are required for absorbing these blows to our psyche.
3:51 pm on January 23rd, 2009
“Police now say the victim was decapitated, and that at least seven others watched as the graduate student was murdered.
Police received a call that a female student was being assaulted in the cafe at the Graduate Life Center at Donaldson-Brown. It ended with what police are now calling a horrific crime scene.
Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum says the first officer arrived within one minute.
“She found the suspect in the café along with the victim. It was a horrific crime scene and the victim had been decapitated,” Flinchum said.”
Can someone explain to me why not one of the seven didn’t try to stop him? He used a kitchen knife for Christ sakes I would think they would have had time to.
3:58 pm on January 23rd, 2009
thats a very good point…I would kind of like to know that too. I mean, I dont think I could just sit back and watch that happen. I would feel compelled to do something; I have a conscience though, that helps.
4:13 pm on January 23rd, 2009
If you aren’t using a guillotine or a sword and chopping block sort of set up — decapitation is gonna take a lot longer than 1 or 2 minutes! Even with a friggen Ginsu! Was every single one of these witnesses frozen in place??? Did they all just run off and leave her to be killed so brutally?
I feel so bad for her and her family. You send your kid off, expecting they will be safe only to have something this senseless and horrific happen to them.
RIP Xin
4:15 pm on January 23rd, 2009
I worry that were I ever a witness to something this terrible I would be paralysed in disbelief so long I would be absolutely no use to the victim. My thoughts would likely go something like this:
Dum-di-dum, – I guess I really should head over to the library and fetch that book I ordered…… The last of my coffee is getting too cold to drink anyway. Must remember to pasta on the way home. Pasta and milk…… What is going on over there by the window? It looks almost as though …… OMG! He’s cutting her head off!!! *gapes incredulously* Someone ought to do something. Oh, thank goodness, here is the Police!
Don’t get me wrong. If it were me, I would want some of you guys among the witnesses. Not someone ineffectual like myself. I do hope for all our sakes that you never have to find out how you would react in a similar situation, though.
4:16 pm on January 23rd, 2009
I had the opportunity to view this beautiful campus in May 2008. My family and I were traveling through Blacksburg and I kept seeing signs for VT. I begged my Dad to please pull everyone over so we could see the campus and the memorial they had erected. This place is AMAZING! It’s not like Temple U, here in the City in the middle of chaos and trash. This place is beautiful and serene, a perfect place for a student to choose to attend school. Not to mention their staff are no slouches either, lol. (Did that sound right?!) Anyways, I just cannot believe this senseless tragedy there, once again by a student of this great institution. WTF is wrong there? What is going on? B/c for ppl like me, from the outside looking in, this campus looks idyllic. What could this chick possibly have done to deserve this? To make this young man so angry with her? What could be that bad for him to throw away his life, his education, take her life…I feel so bad for their families. Now there will be more ppl like myself stopping there to see the memorial(s)…
4:34 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Remember the decapitation on the busliner. Sounds just the same, no arguing, no yelling or cross words. Also, there was no saving this person either.
I wonder if you are just in such a state of shock that it takes a few minutes to register in your mind or what.
Personally, I would have to step over my own urine, feces, and vomit to get to the person.
How in the world do you just whip out a knife and cut someone’s head off? It seems to me it would take extraordinary strength.
Why would you even go to such extremes of “overkill”, I think it what it’s called?
6:30 pm on January 23rd, 2009
i am from a small town, and even in this small town we have our share of inhuman acts. on this site there is a story of David Davis, a good person that was slaughtered by Meek’s and Perry.He was a good friend and because of that moment in time that those two evil subhuman”s ( cant call them people) waist of space ‘ nobodies,animals did that to him ,,,,,Now i am a full believer in the death penalty…………..And that man that took the life of that girl in the coffee shop, they need to do test on his brain to find out how and why someone can do such a thing to another living being. I makes me want to take my kids and hide from the rest of this crazy, sick,twisted world.
7:31 pm on January 23rd, 2009
You are both right. I guess reading this shit day to day is beginning to have an effect on me! I feel I must be a little morbid because my friends think I am for being a part of this site. But, in actually, it is just a part of who I have always been and they should not be surprised. When most of them hear the tale of a tragic occurrence their instant reaction is usually shock and they become speechless, but then, they can always count on me for a sarcastic comment to lighten the load. It’s just who I am and I never mean harm when I speak my thoughts openly. Some take offense, but the ones who “get me” are my friends. I guess what I am rambling on about is that I can relate for the need of humor, no matter how dark, to cope with the realities of life, which many are dark! I think I do fit in well here. *sigh*
8:00 pm on January 23rd, 2009
i am the first one to say i am somewhat a dark person, i look at Manson ( singer not murderer) and get a rush, the dark side of me has to be tempered at the fact that i am a mom, and some how i have to make sence of this for my 10 yr old,,, who dosnt want to here sugar coated version , she thinks she is old enough for the truth. little dose she know every day she stands to be raped or murdered ,, and i dont think she is old enough to really understand. hell i am 37 and still dont under stand
8:01 pm on January 23rd, 2009
I haven’t posted here in quite a while, but I was motivated to do so again by this disgusting, horrifying story. That, and the fact that Jury is an asshole. An asshole is defined as someone who makes incredibly tasteless jokes and doesn’t have the talent to make said tasteless joke even remotely funny. Nope, can’t define that “sushi” comment as “wicked humor,” because there was absolutely no humor involved. Just me cringing when I realized Jury probably THOUGHT his comment was funny.
If you’re going to make light of a woman being decapitated with a kitchen knife, the joke better damn well be hilarious. Leave the tastelessness to Swivel — he’s actually amusing.
8:07 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Also, I hate this Zhu asshole with every fiber of my being. His blank expression in his mugshot, in which it looks like he’s on the verge of yawning, makes me want to do unspeakably violent things to this waste of human DNA.
I wish that I could win a contest — instead of one of those “win dinner with a celeb” things, it could be “win the chance to slowly and brutally decapitate Haiyang Zhu with a knife.” What would be really cool is if all four of his limbs were tied down at the time, so there could be 30 second delays between each cut.
Is that psycho? Sorry, I really despise this fucker.
8:07 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Yes, my husband went to VT for 2 years it is beautiful there. It’s not a place where you would think something like this would happen. But then again anything can happen anywhere.
8:12 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Special2bme, on a lighter note I just want to say your avatar is the most adorable thing ever.
Also, I realized the picture of Zhu above might be from his student ID or something, not his mughsot. But why do I suspect that his mugshot looks much the same?
8:16 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Now, that is some funny shit!
Here, here! Bow to the master! Still don’t get the sushi joke, but as I posted earlier, I got the losin’ head joke cuz’ it was funny in a demented sort of way! It made me laugh and feel bad for laughing! Which is why I called it demented. Does anyone understand or am I just demented too?
8:31 pm on January 23rd, 2009
This is just sick…. and sad~ I don’t understand how someone could do this in a cafe so fast. I mean, not to be sick, but you’d think it would take some time to remove an actual head from someones body? How big was this knife??? It isn’t like just cutting a piece of steak in half…. wtf, did I just say that? Ahhh, I am speechless… this is a gross topic, I am moving on……….
9:02 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Veronica, Thank you very much.
I went back and checked my article and it is his mugshot.
9:05 pm on January 23rd, 2009
gross or not,,,,,,,,,,,,, this is the big beautiful world that we are giving to our kids.is it me or is the things people aredoing to others getting more and more horrid? in the western days you were shot. now your shot many times , but not were you will die (right away) people want to see how many times they can shoot you to cause as much pain possible.. Lets face it people ,,,,,,lots of people get off to that just like old men get off to viagra.
9:06 pm on January 23rd, 2009
Dneilz, First LOL yes you just said that. I’m with you. It was a kitchen knife, even if it were like a butcher knife that would take some time. I still can’t understand how those 7 witnesses could sit there and watch him do this without doing something. My husband said they were probably too stoned to do anything.
9:12 pm on January 23rd, 2009
I would love to be a superhero, but sadly i was born with no powers ,,,,,,except the power of love. The love of living and being there for my family.I can say that i mostlikly would not of jumped in to help,,, being a hero isnt much conculation to my kids
9:17 pm on January 23rd, 2009
I can’t say I necessarily agree with your husband — this is what is known in stoner culture as a total buzzkill!
9:33 pm on January 23rd, 2009
The sound would have been horrific, he would have had to snap the head from the spine. It would have taken some work to say the least to completely behead her. Also I have never ever considered myself a racist person by any means…but what is it that middle eastern people have againest VT. I wonder if it has something to do with these young adults being sent over here with such strong language and cultural barriers that they feel they have no one to talk to. God forbid but if another person from the same corner of the world and happens to be a VT student goes nuts, would we then consider it some middle eastern trend.
For anyone who is going to comment back saying im a racist or flip a biscuit because of my comment, please know it was not intended that way.
9:34 pm on January 23rd, 2009
why do you think only stoners would stand by and let that happened. sad as it sounds, but i dont think straight laced god fearing ,paster of a church would of done anything either.as bad as this world is i want to be around to watch my kids grow up.
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