TIANJIN - The killing of a 22-year old British Columbia girl in Shanghai is making headlines in Canada, and is leading to questions in that country over the safety of foreigners here in China.

Diana O'Brien, from Saltspring Island near Vancouver, was found stabbed-to-death in her apartment's stairwell in Shanghai on July 7.  The Times Colonist reports:

O'Brien was 10 days into a three-month modelling contract with Jh Model Agency in Shanghai, but was homesick and had planned to return to Canada on July 24 or 25.

O'Brien was living with a roommate from Victoria at the time, who claimed their apartment in Shanghai had been ransacked.  This has led to speculation that O'Brien's death was the result of a botched robbery.

The Canadian Press is now reporting the agency she was working for, JH, has disappeared:

A young man who answered the door at the Shanghai address listed for JH Model Management told an Associated Press reporter he didn't know of any modeling agency at that address.

It's not only the company's office at the high-rise building complex that's missing. The website for JH, which had billed itself as "one of the leading modelling agencies in the East of China for over 100 models," became unavailable Tuesday evening.

It seems it's not just the modeling agency that isn't providing answers.  Geoffrey York, a hard-nosed reporter with the Globe and Mail, notes that the last thing China needs one month prior to the Olympics is a high-profile killing of a foreigner in the country's largest city.  Which could explain why, so far, the police have been quiet:

Officials at the Shanghai branch of the Public Security Ministry, the agency in charge of the police, declined to make any comment Tuesday on the death.

At a local police station in the city's Changning district, not far from the last published address of the modelling agency that recruited Ms. O'Brien, a police officer issued a brief statement to CTV News Tuesday after making many calls to her superior officers. “The police will do everything possible to investigate and resolve this case,” the statement said. “When the investigation reaches a more certain level, we will contact the media.”

China is generally regarded as safe for foreigners, which is why cases like this become high-profile.  Hopefully, for the sake of her friends and family, the police in Shanghai can find some answers.



UPDATE (15:35 Beijing Time, July 11):

Shanghai Daily is now reporting that an 18 year old suspect has been apprehended in Anhui Province in connection with O'Brien's murder:

The suspect, Chen Jun, was apprehended about 8:15am in Langxi County, Xuanchen, a city hundreds of kilometers from Shanghai, the statement said.

Police found money and a laptop that were believed to have belonged to the victim Diana Gabrielle O'Brien. They also found a weapon on Chen, according to the statement.

The bureau's 110 Command Center received a call about 5:30am on Monday saying that O'Brien, from Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, was found stabbed to death in her apartment building's stairwell in Jinseng Plaza at 490 Zhaohua Road, Xuhui District.

The statement said police narrowed down suspects to Chen after they received reports that a medium-sized man was spotted riding a bicycle near the victim's residence.

Police focused on Chen as the main suspect after he fled to Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, and then reportedly showed up in Xuancheng, the statement said.

The full story can be read here.