Video: police describe the murder scene

Images of a Chinese graduate’s final journey home from work in Newcastle were released today by police investigating why she was brutally murdered alongside her boyfriend last week.

Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang, both 25, were found in their flat in the West End of the city on Saturday. They had both sustained prolonged and vicious attacks with a knife and a second bladed weapon.

Police have admitted that they are finding it very difficult to piece together events leading up to the double murder. The language barrier has hampered Northumbria police's communication with Newcastle’s Chinese community and officers say they are no nearer to finding a motive for the killings.

The CCTV images show Ms Zhou, known as Cici, leaving the restaurant where she worked as a waitress in Eldon Square, Newcastle at around 3.47pm last Thursday. She then caught a bus and was last captured on camera a few yards from her home as she turned into Croydon Road.

Staff at Wagamama’s noodle restaurant were very surprised when the ever-reliable Ms Zhou did not arrive for her shift on the following day.

On Saturday, a group of friends entered the couple’s flat through an open window to discover Ms Zhou’s badly cut body. In a second room police officers soon found that her boyfriend had also been murdered.

A post-mortem examination of Mr Yang’s body suggested that he may have been subjected to an hour-long ordeal before the final fatal blows were inflicted on him.

Yesterday police announced that a post mortem would also be carried out on the couple’s black and white cat who was found dead in the bathroom.

The body of the pet was found in a washing up bowl filled with water. A towel and pair of gloves lay nearby and police want to ascertain how the animal died. Officers hope that the cat may have struggled and scratched the attacker or attackers and may have vital DNA clues on its claws.

Northumbria police said today that they were investigating possible links with a man they arrested this morning for violent burglary, but they do not anticipate finding a direct link.

“He was not arrested in connection with the murder investigation,” said Detective Superintendent Steve Wade.

“Officers from the Major Investigation team are looking into the circumstances of that burglary and his arrest. At this stage there is no evidence to link it to the murder, but you never say never in this business.”

Mr Wade admitted today that police were struggling to make headway in their investigation. “We’re a bit short of information,” he said.

Details of Mr Yang's background was particularly hard to come by according to the police. Officers said they were finding it difficult to communicate with Mandarin speakers in the Newcastle area and that would now take a more proactive approach in reaching out to the Chinese community.

The local police have asked London’s Metropolitan Police to send a Mandarin-speaking officer to the area to help.

Mr Wade said he had only recently learnt of a website about the murders, which was set up by a Mandarin-speaking student and had already received more than 50,000 hits. He will now consider doing a live web-chat with Chinese students, with his questions and answers being translated via an interpreter.

Computers and several mobile phones were taken from the crime scene for analysis. DNA samples now have been sent away to a specialist laboratory at Wetherby, West Yorkshire.

The families of the dead couple, who live thousands of miles apart in China, may yet come to the UK to liaise with police about the investigation and repatriating the bodies.

Police want to trace Mr Yang’s best friend Fan Zhang, who is a post-graduate at Newcastle University studying economics, to help build up a picture of the victim’s life.

He lives in Newcastle’s East End, but officers had not managed to speak to him.

“We don’t think there is anything sinister in that,” Mr Wade said. “It would be nice to speak to him, simply to piece together some of the deceased’s last movements.”

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