A young Chinese woman found dead in a basement apartment near York University, Toronto, was last seen by a friend she was chatting with on the web, police say.
Qian “Necole†Liu, a 23-year-old York student from Beijing, was found dead just before noon Friday. Police are still looking for a man reportedly seen struggling with her earlier that morning.
Police say Liu was chatting with a friend by webcam at about 1 a.m. when an unknown man knocked on the door.
The friend she was talking to reportedly lives in China and was Liu’s boyfriend, according to posts on a Chinese-language chatroom, the Toronto Star reported. He reported seeing a struggle break out between the two before the man turned off Liu’s laptop and threw her cellphone on the floor.
Police say the laptop is now missing.
The friend tried to get help but the people he tried to contact were asleep, the Star reported. No one got his frantic message until 8:30 a.m. Saturday and it wasn’t until 10:30 a.m. that the landlord unlocked the apartment door, the Star reported.
Liu was found naked from the waist down, but there were no obvious signs of sexual assault or trauma that would have led to her death, police say.
