Full Name 赵巍 Name Murder Amanda | Occupation Student Nationality Chinese | |
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Born c. 1981 China Died October 2002, British Columbia, Canada | ||
Amanda Zhao Wei (simplified Chinese: 赵巍; traditional Chinese: 趙巍; pinyin: Zhào Wēi; c. 1981 – October 2002) was an international student in Vancouver, British Columbia, who was murdered in October 2002. She was reported missing on October 9, 2002. Her body was found in a suitcase by hikers near Stave Lake, British Columbia, on October 20, 2002. Autopsy performed reveals that she was strangled. Before the murder, Zhao was an English student at Coquitlam College in British Columbia.
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Investigation
Her murder was of great interest in the Chinese community in Canada because it exposed the lack of an extradition treaty between China and Canada for crimes in the two countries and the lack of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) authority in retaining suspects within Canadian borders until the investigation of a crime is completed.
The two murder suspects in the case, Li Ang (李昂) and Zhang Han (张瀚), were arrested in China in the summer of 2009. Li was convicted in September, 2012 and sentenced to life in prison. Zhang was released and is not scheduled to be tried. In 2014, Li's sentence was changed by the Supreme court of Beijing to 7 years. The original first degree murder charge has been changed to secondary degree murder charge as the Supreme court of Beijing ruled that Zhao was accidentally killed by Li during a pillow play fight. The court decision was controversial as the court ruled without any new evidence
Murder suspects
The prime suspect Li Ang, who was Zhao's boyfriend at the time of murder, was initially in Canada when Zhao's body was found. He was a Chinese national and a computer science student at Simon Fraser University. Eleven days before the body was found, Li reported to police that Zhao was missing after she went to buy groceries at the local Safeway store. However, three days after Zhao's body was found, Li returned to China. He was initially questioned by the RCMP on the case, but it was not until seven months after the murder that the RCMP issue a warrant for his arrest. Li is being charged with second-degree murder in absentia by the Canadian government. In 2004, he was taken into custody by the Chinese government but was later released due to lack of evidence.
Zhang Han, who was Li's cousin, was also implicated in the case. He later confessed that he had helped Li dispose of Zhao's body and helped Li travel back to China after the murder. Zhang's confession led to him being charged as an accessory after the fact in Zhao’s murder. However, he was later acquitted by the British Columbia Supreme Court because the confession had been improperly obtained.
Zhao, Li, and Zhang shared a basement apartment in Burnaby, British Columbia at the time of murder.
The arrests took many years to complete mainly because the Canadian government is reluctant in giving evidence of the murder case to China, which allows for capital punishment. On October 13, 2009, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism Jason Kenney said that China's capital punishment policy has been a problem in the case.