Rick Dean
Registered
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/N.../23/553646.html
Fri, July 23, 2004
Suspect described as 'quiet, bookish'
He seemed surprised to see police, chief says
By KIM BRADLEY, JONATHAN KINGSTONE AND ALAN CAIRNS, TORONTO SUN
THE MAN accused of abducting and killing Cecilia Zhang was described as quiet and bookish by acquaintances yesterday. Min Chen, 21, was granted his first student visa in 2001 and was given an extension in 2003 to stay until next month.
Peel Police Chief Noel Catney said Chen seemed genuinely surprised to
ee investigators when he was arrested Wednesday.
"He did not expect it," he said.
He came to know the Zhangs through a fellow student who rented a room in their house not far from t
he Seneca College North York campus from Sept. 2002 to March 2003.
A man who claimed to know Che
n said yesterday that he didn't think he is capable of murder.
On the Chinese Web site, wenxuecity.com, the unidentified man said he met Chen at a party about a year ago. Chen had told him about attending Seneca College and about his father, a bank employee in Shanghai.
A QUIET PERSON
The man said Chen was a "quiet person who looked poor."
About 10 days before his arrest, Chen moved into a Sheppard Ave. E. highrise with a woman who was taken into custody at the same time as he was, said the building's property manager, Davyd Lipkin.
She was later released without being charged, police said.
Lipkin was in the office when Chen filled out the
application for the fifth-floor, two- bedroom apartment, which he leased for a year at $1,075 a month.
"He was very quiet," Lipkin recalled yesterday. "He was neatly dressed.
He looked like a young professor."
When he came in to sign the application he brought an Asian woman who he said was going to be his roommate, Lipkin adde
d.
The petite woman, who looked to be in her early 20s, answered the door of the apartment yesterday but quickly closed it, refusing to answer questions.
Since his arrival in Canada, Chen has been attending school -- first at Seneca College's English Language Institute then at the McDonald International Academy.
HE LEFT SENECA IN 2002
"His visa was granted before he came ... He would not be allowed into Canada without it," said Martha Lowrie, Seneca College's director of marketing and communications.
Chen left Seneca in April 2002 and began studies at McDonald International, a private sec
ondary school that prepares Chinese students for university with English lessons and exposure to Canadian business and social settings.
Fri, July 23, 2004
Suspect described as 'quiet, bookish'
He seemed surprised to see police, chief says
By KIM BRADLEY, JONATHAN KINGSTONE AND ALAN CAIRNS, TORONTO SUN
THE MAN accused of abducting and killing Cecilia Zhang was described as quiet and bookish by acquaintances yesterday. Min Chen, 21, was granted his first student visa in 2001 and was given an extension in 2003 to stay until next month.
Peel Police Chief Noel Catney said Chen seemed genuinely surprised to
ee investigators when he was arrested Wednesday.
"He did not expect it," he said.
He came to know the Zhangs through a fellow student who rented a room in their house not far from t
he Seneca College North York campus from Sept. 2002 to March 2003.
A man who claimed to know Che
n said yesterday that he didn't think he is capable of murder.
On the Chinese Web site, wenxuecity.com, the unidentified man said he met Chen at a party about a year ago. Chen had told him about attending Seneca College and about his father, a bank employee in Shanghai.
A QUIET PERSON
The man said Chen was a "quiet person who looked poor."
About 10 days before his arrest, Chen moved into a Sheppard Ave. E. highrise with a woman who was taken into custody at the same time as he was, said the building's property manager, Davyd Lipkin.
She was later released without being charged, police said.
Lipkin was in the office when Chen filled out the
application for the fifth-floor, two- bedroom apartment, which he leased for a year at $1,075 a month.
"He was very quiet," Lipkin recalled yesterday. "He was neatly dressed.
He looked like a young professor."
When he came in to sign the application he brought an Asian woman who he said was going to be his roommate, Lipkin adde
d.
The petite woman, who looked to be in her early 20s, answered the door of the apartment yesterday but quickly closed it, refusing to answer questions.
Since his arrival in Canada, Chen has been attending school -- first at Seneca College's English Language Institute then at the McDonald International Academy.
HE LEFT SENECA IN 2002
"His visa was granted before he came ... He would not be allowed into Canada without it," said Martha Lowrie, Seneca College's director of marketing and communications.
Chen left Seneca in April 2002 and began studies at McDonald International, a private sec
ondary school that prepares Chinese students for university with English lessons and exposure to Canadian business and social settings.
