Online Gambling May Have Played a Part in Double Murder

August 21, 2008

Xi Zhou and her boyfriend Zhen Xing Yang were both found murdered in their flat by police. The two graduates of Newcastle University were both 25 at the time of their deaths. Police discovered the bodies where they had been attacked.

Both were residing in a ground floor flat in Croyden Road, in Newcastle�s West End. The victims were fund with knife and other sharp weapon injuries, as well as severe head trauma. Police are looking for clues as to who might have harmed these young people, as well as clues to who their former lodger might be.

Allegedly the couple was allowing a Chinese man to sub-let a room with the couple in their flat. They had advertised their room for rent and had gotten someone to move in. On August 3rd or 4th, Mr. Yang had called his mother and told her that someone had moved in, and that he was a student.

Police are concerned that it may have something to do with online gambling. They say that Mr. Yang may have been involved in an online gambling scam, and may have used forged documents to get into Newcastle University.

However, they say that the violence with which the couple had met is completely disproportionate from the amount of online gambling that was going on. Police say that the online gambling racket was truly small potatoes, and the violence perpetrated on the couple, including the drowning of their cat, makes it seem that something else was going on here.
 

Back to August 08 Archive.