York U. student in webcam attack ID'd

Toronto police have identified the young woman they believe died in her basement apartment near York University after struggling with someone who knocked at her door.

Police found the body of a 23-year-old Chinese national, who wasstudying at York, at about 11 a.m. Friday after an official from the Chinese Consulate called to express concern.

Police identified the student on Monday as Qian Liu, 23, from Beijing.

Police said Sunday that the young woman was having an online video chat at about 1 a.m. on Friday with a man overseas who has since spoken with police.

Her mother had called the Chinese Consulate to say something had happened to her daughter and to ask officials to check on her ather basement apartment locatedjust south of the York campus.

Police say the student was found unclothed from the waist down, but there were no obvious signs she was sexually assaulted. The cause of death hasn't been determined yet.

Speaking on CBC News Network on Monday afternoon, Toronto police spokesman Const. Tony Vella said the case remains a suspicious death investigation.

"Her body was taken to the coroner's office for a post-mortem investigation and they still need to do further tests and at that point we'll have a better understanding once we get the results back if it's a homicide or not, but still classified as a suspicious death," he said.

Vella said Qian was chatting with a man online, who witnessed some of the attackand was able to give police a description of the attacker.

"[The online witness] was chatting with her on Friday around 1 a.m.and he heard someone knocking on her door and at that point the lady got up and answered the door," said Vella.

"He could hear the man asking to use her cellphone. At which time he also then noticed that there was a struggle between her and the man and then someone turned off the victim's laptop," said Vella.

When asked why 10 hours passed between when the attack was witnessed and the arrival of police, Vella said police were not notified until Friday morning.

"Someone had gone to [her] address because they were concerned for her well-being and they went into the apartment and they found her there and they were concerned so they contacted police," said Vella. "We responded on the Friday at 11 a.m. and that's when we were first made aware of the situation," he said.

"[The online witness] is not from Toronto, he is from China and there was a conversation between [the victim] and this man, but he did not notify police, it was someone else and, that's another factor that we're looking at."

Zhuo Yue said he and Qian used to go clubbing together.He said the person Qian was chatting with online at the time she was attacked was her boyfriend, though police would not confirm this. Zhuo saidhe didn't know she was in trouble until he got an email from her boyfriend in Beijing on Friday morning.

"At 8 a.m. I left home for school," he told CBC News through an interpreter. "I didn't see the message sent by her boyfriend until 8:30 a.m. on the bus. I called my brother right away to check on her. She didn't answer the door. I called the landlord to open the door."

Vella also said it appears this wasnot a random attack.

"It looks targeted, but we'll still look into all possibilities at this point and it's important to keep an open mind in this case," he said.

Although some of the struggle occurredout of view of the computer's camera, adescription of the assailant was provided from what the witness could see:

• Awhite male aged between 20and 30 years old.
• About six feet tall and between 175 and 200 pounds with a muscular build, and medium-length brown hair, messy at the front and well-groomed at back.
• He was wearing a blue crew-neck T-shirt.

Police are still looking for the victim's computer, which was taken from the scene. It is an IBM Thinkpad, model T400.

York issues statement

York University released a statementon Monday afternoon, calling the woman's death a "terrible tragedy."

"Our entire community mourns the loss of a promising young student," the statement from York president Mamdouh Shoukri. "Our deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathy go out to her family, friends and classmates."

"The tragic passing of a member of the York community affects us all. I would ask students, faculty and staff to reach out to one another at this very difficult time."