A University of California student was murdered inside an apartment off campus while hunting for interested people who jumped out of a second-floor window to escape the crime scene.
Mengan Tshan's body was found in a unit at the Vista Mansion Complex in the Newhall community in Santa Clarita on Feb. 4 at 6:45pm, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office said.
A Chinese citizen living in the United States on a student visa, Zhuang studied at the California Institute of Arts in Valencia, about five miles from his home.
The 23-year-old, known to her friend as Emily King, has lived in the United States for three and a half years.
Zhuang's roommate discovered she was not responding in the shared unit and asked for help at 6:47pm
Authorities found Zhuang suffering from several upper body injuries, but would not reveal the extent or type of injury. She was declared dead at the scene.
Police say Zhuang invited an unnamed “male companion” to her house the night before her death.
The man was captured in video footage of him escape the building through a window in Zhuang's two-storey bedroom just hours before his body was discovered.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office said the man “looks like Asian.”
“This person is the kind of person we want to identify and find,” sheriff's Homicide Division's Michael Modica Chuli said Thursday.
The detectives ruled out Zhuang's roommate as a suspect who was helping out in the investigation.
Modica called Zhuang's death a non-random “a pointless and violent act.”
“Based on this research, it is clear that this was not a random act of violence, and Mengan knew someone in some way that was interested,” Modica said.
Modica did not confirm the relationship between Zhuang and the interested person, but said the detective was investigating the link between the two.
He also refused to acknowledge that Zhuang had an older boyfriend or whether there was a history of domestic violence in the relationship.
County supervisor Kathryn Berger submitted a $20,000 reward for information on the murder.
Remuneration must be passed by the LA County Board of Supervisors during the February 18 meeting, but will be retroactive until February 13th.
The California Institute of Arts has cooperated with the investigation and helped the sheriff's office contact the family of Zhuang in China.
Her dad and sister arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Modica said.
