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AP Photo/Toronto Police via The Canadian Press
Qian Liu
# Webcam murder
Man charged in connection with webcam murder
Qian Liu’s murder was partly witnessed by her boyfriend on webcam. He has told how he felt helpless as he watched his girlfriend struggle for her life.
A MAN HAS been charged with murder following the killing of a Chinese student in Toronto which was witnessed by her boyfriend watching on a webcam 11,000 miles away.
Brian Dickson, 29, will appear in court later today charged with the first-degree murder of 23-year-old York University student Qian Liu, reports the Toronto Star newspaper.
Yesterday it was reported that Liu had been speaking to her boyfriend Meng Xianchao on a webcam in her bedroom when she answered the door to a man who engaged her in a violent struggled partly witnessed by her boyfriend who desperately tried to contact Liu’s friends.
However, it was only ten hours later that her body was discovered by police who arrived at the scene.
Liu’s webcam, laptop and mobile phone have all gone missing and have not yet been recovered despite the arrest. Police believe this will be key to their investigation.
Police also announced that the student’s grieving parents had arrived in Canada.
Her father Jianhui Liu told the waiting media after the 13-hour flight from Beijing: “We are very sad but we would like to take this opportunity to thank . . . everyone, the media, community and Chinese consulate staff.”
Police are awaiting toxicology reports but say there were no obvious signs of sexual assault or severe physical trauma, CNN reports.
Liu’s boyfriend told CTV about witnessing the dreadful murder and not being able to do anything to stop it:
The man tried to hug (her) but she was resisting and saying, ‘No, no, please don’t,’At that moment my mind went blank and I was cursing him from my webcam, I was so far away I couldn’t reach her.
I felt so helpless and I couldn’t calm down until in the end the guy closed the computer.”
Liu’s roommates said the incident has been too traumatic for them and they plan to move out of the basement apartment where it occurred.
