Murder of Zhang Hong Jie
Media Conference, Winchester Police Centre Canberra
Commander Shane Connelly
Monday 7 March 2005
Shane Connelly: Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the press conference today. If I can first start with a few words, today we are formally announcing that we have identified Zhang Hong Jie, aged 25. She was also known as Steffi, and she was a Chinese national, and was a student at the University of Canberra at the time of her death. She was discovered in Canberra as you are aware on January 12 in Belconnen at a flat. She was enrolled in Canberra and commenced her studies in 2000. She was enrolled in a media degree at the time of her death. Miss Zhang's body was officially identified at the end of February. The bad state of the body's decomposition required us to use DNA and we worked closely with Chinese officials to obtain DNA from her family and brought the DNA here and made a comparative analysis. This work was done with the AFP international network's members who are located in Beijing in China. We can tell you that our suspect in the matter is a male, is a citizen of another country, and we believe he's currently overseas; he is longer in Australia. Our international counterparts are working with us in relation to attempting to locate him, and we are confident that he will be found. At this stage it's inappropriate for us to advise you of his identity. The public is a vital source of information for us in this matter, and we would like to encourage anyone who may have information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. The poster that we will be releasing today will be posted throughout Canberra's universities, shopping malls and where the community gathers, and where Miss Zhang may have been sighted prior to her murder. We are seeking help to retrace her movements leading up to her death. That's the formal statement I'd like to make today and I'm quite happy to take questions.
Reporter: …..the suspect, what can you tell us about him?
Shane Connelly: Look what we can tell you is that he was a male person, that obviously he was in Canberra around the time of the murder, and sometime prior, and that he has left the country. And that we're working with police internationally throughout the Interpol system to endeavour to locate him and have him apprehended.
Reporter: Is he related to the victim?
Shane Connelly: He's not related but I won't say anything more about that.
Reporter: Is he an Australian National?
Shane Connelly: No, he's not an Australian National.
Reporter: Is he Chinese?
Shane Connelly: I'm not prepared to answer anything further in relation to his nationality: simply to say that he is not an Australian national and he's left the country.
Reporter: (Inaudible.)
Shane Connelly: She was dead for some time. We estimate that the time of death was in June 2004, and she was discovered by police on January 12, 2005. It was quite a difficult autopsy and DNA process because of the decomposition that had occurred. What I can say is that this is a murder investigation but we won't go into the specific cause of death because prior to us talking to the suspect, it would be inappropriate and may harm the investigation.
Reporter: Was she killed in the apartment?
Shane Connelly: I won't go into speculating into the place of death.
Reporter: How long had she been missing? She'd been missing for a very long time -- eight months is a very long time.
Shane Connelly: Our investigation is focussed on finding out who the offender is. Equally we want to bring this offender to justice and find out how she died. Certainly there was a number of reports in the area, none of which to us were in relation to the smell and those situations around the flat. I can't go into why that wasn't reported to us earlier.
Reporter: Inaudible
Shane Connelly: We've spoken to the family through the international liaison officer network, and through the assistance of the Chinese police. They weren't aware; they spoke to her prior to her death, and they have now been notified formally through diplomatic channels that they have lost their child.
Reporter: Inaudible
Shane Connelly: I understand she was on a student visa. As I said our focus is in relation to how she died and who killed her. Whether she attended a class or not is notvthe focus of our investigation: it's the cause of death and who was responsible for her death.
Reporter: Inaudible
Shane Connelly: Well certainly, the Chinese police through our international liaison officer network have assisted us in relation to the provision of family samples, so that we could make the positive identification through DNA in the first place, and from this point of time on we'll be working with all police through the Interpol network to locate the suspect so that we can formally seek to interview that suspect and apply through normal processes to if possible seek extradition.
Reporter: Did the family have any concerns that she'd been missing for all this time?
Shane Connelly: No there was no reports raised by the family as far as we're aware, and we have no reports of her being reported missing at all, that we've been able to find.
Reporter: Has the family told you anything that they were led to believe that she was somewhere and uncontactable or…
Shane Connelly: No, the family has assisted us in relation to our enquiries but they have not provided this information.
Reporter: Inaudible
Shane Connelly: Yes, 2000 is when she commenced her studies. I don't know the degree of in and out movements of the deceased prior to the time of her murder, except she's been in Canberra for some time. And we're hoping that through the use of this poster her friends will come forward so that we can really establish her movements prior to the murder, associates, movements, places she frequented, and perhaps answer some of the questions that in the interview you yourselves are raising today.
Reporter: Has anyone come forward yet?
Shane Connelly: We have witnesses who are assisting us, not witnesses specific to the event.
Reporter: Inaudible
Shane Connelly: I won't go into that detail. We've already made gains in relation to movements of the suspect, but we're still investigating the matter so it would be inappropriate for me to go down that line.
Reporter: When he left and where he is now?
Shane Connelly: We know when he made certain movements; where he is now is not a matter I want to enter into today.
Reporter: Can you paint us a bit of a picture of how it came to be that no one reported her missing? Did she have any friends? Was she a quiet person?
Shane Connelly: She certainly was known. She had some friends in Canberra. I think it's fair to say that there are a lot of students who come to Canberra, in fact they come all over Australia to converge on institutions. The movements in and out of these institutions is regular so maybe she was just simply missed or people may have thought she'd gone home. We can't answer that; as I said we're hoping with our investigation to really retrace the steps up to the time of her murder. We believe that will assist us greatly, hence the need to get out there now that we've formally identified the deceased and to ask people to ring Crime Stoppers.
Reporter: Do you have any idea of……..
Shane Connelly: Only limited. Well we know of her attendance at universities and places like that, we know some of the travels but it's only limited. And we obviously have her movements in and out of Australia.
Reporter: Inaudible
Shane Connelly: No but she had been living there some time, but she hadn't been living there my understanding is not the whole time.
Reporter: Was she renting?
Shane Connelly: It's a rental property yes.
Reporter: Have you had any help from the landlord?
Shane Connelly: We have spoken to various witnesses including the landlord and those witnesses are assisting us with our enquiries.
Reporter: Did her rent continue to be paid after she was killed?
Shane Connelly: I won't go into her rental arrangements at this time.
Reporter: Did she have a flatmate?
Shane Connelly: Yes she did.
Reporter: Did the flatmate….
Shane Connelly: There are people who are assisting us with our enquiries and the witnesses to the matter, and they are assisting but that's all I'll say in relation to that.
Reporter: Inaudible
Shane Connelly: Oh, as I said I'm not going to go into the identity of those people who've lived at the flat, because more than one person lived at the flat and so people are assisting us in that way.
Reporter: They've all been contacted and ……….
Shane Connelly: Well we're speaking to witnesses in relation to the matter.
Ends//