University of Utah Student Found Dead After Boyfriend Emailed He Would ‘Relieve Her From Suffering’
A 19-year-old student from China was killed in her Salt Lake City hotel room after a disturbing email was sent to a University of Utah employee about her being injected with drugs.
The student, who has yet to be identified, was found lifeless in a Quality Inn room on Friday. A man who identified himself as her boyfriend emailed a university employee to say he gave her injections to “make her less miserable”.
The police officers traced the location of the victim’s cell phone to track her down at the hotel, and upon entering the room, they found the man beside her body, Salt Lake Tribune report.
Officers “immediately began providing immediate first aid to the woman, but paramedics determined she was dead,” the Salt Lake City Police Department said in a statement. statement.
The man told police that the two had agreed to a suicide deal with drugs purchased on the Dark Web to facilitate their plan. He “claimed that he killed the victim and then attempted to kill himself by injecting himself,” police said.
The man has yet to be charged in connection with the 19-year-old’s death, which police have described as “suspicious”. But investigators said they were looking at her death “as a homicide related to domestic violence.”
The 26-year-old suspect “and the woman were romantically involved and living together,” police said.
The young victim is the second Chinese student to be killed at the University of Utah in the past five years.
A university spokesperson confirmed that the 26-year-old man being held by police is also an international student from China, according to the statement. Tribune. He was charged in mid-January for allegedly assaulting a person not far from the motel where police arrested him, but it is unclear who the victim is. A hearing in that case has been scheduled for February 16.
In a statement released Friday, officials at the University of Utah expressed their “sincere grief” for the victim’s family and friends, and used the incident to call for attention to domestic violence.
“The death of any young person entering adult life is devastating. And, unfortunately, domestic violence is more common than many of us are aware of, even among college students,” the statement said.
If you or a loved one is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Message Line crisis by texting TALK to 741741.
