Chinese graduate student at Stanford found dead in trunk of car

[kasia]

SANTA ROSA
Stanford student's body found
Jim Doyle, Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writers

Friday, January 26, 2007

A Stanford graduate student missing for five days was found dead Thursday in the trunk of her compact car in Santa Rosa, and may have taken her own life, police said.

But her father, who learned of the death from reporters and complained of little information from Santa Rosa or Stanford police, said he doubted her death was a suicide.

"My daughter was very organized," said Yitong Zhou of San Diego. "If she had wanted to commit suicide, she would have sent some kind of indication. I don't see any evidence there, any indication she was depressed."

His daughter Mengyao "May" Zhou, a 23-year-old electrical engineering student, disappeared after leaving her on-campus home Saturday, telling friends she was completing errands.

Santa Rosa Junior College police officers found her car about 3:30 a.m. Thursday in a parking lot near the school's planetarium. Santa Rosa police had it towed to an undisclosed location and opened the trunk, finding the body.

Santa Rosa police Sgt. Lisa Banayat said that the cause of death "may have been a suicide" and that "there were some items in the vehicle that would be consistent with a suicide." Banayat said the car had been in the lot since at least Sunday.

Police offered few other details.

Banayat would not disclose the items found in the trunk nor say whether a suicide note or any medications had been among them. She said that the trunk and the doors of Zhou's silver 2006 Toyota Corolla were locked and did not appear to have been tampered with.

"We do not know why she chose to come to Santa Rosa," Banayat said. "I don't know what in her life may have led her to this."

Yitong Zhou said in a telephone interview Thursday night from his San Diego home that police told him earlier that his daughter's car had been found but had not notified him of her death. He also said he was unaware that authorities considered it a possible suicide.

Her father said May was happy at Stanford, where she was a second-year graduate student and a doctoral candidate. He said his daughter, who had bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, held three or four patents on devices related to digital imaging technology.

He said he could not think of a reason why his daughter would drive to Santa Rosa, and did not think she knew anyone in the area.

"My daughter doesn't like to drive too far," he said. "She drives as little as possible."

May was the elder of two daughters, said Zhou, a software engineer. He said he, his wife and their younger daughter were inundated by media calls Thursday but wanted to release as little personal information as possible.

Although police suspect the death was a suicide, Banayat said investigators are not ruling out a homicide.

"We're not ruling out anything," she said.

The investigation into Zhou's disappearance and death is continuing with police from the Stanford, Santa Rosa Junior College and Santa Rosa city departments involved. The Sonoma County coroner's office will conduct an autopsy today.

[moser]

"My daughter was very organized," said Yitong Zhou of San Diego. "If she had wanted to commit suicide, she would have sent some kind of indication. I don't see any evidence there, any indication she was depressed."

If she was very organized, she could have also planned it so that no one would think anything was wrong and not suspect (and thus possibly stop) her to allegedly commit suicide.

It seems fishy that she'd commit suicide in the trunk of a car though.

[SunWuKong]

yeah if she had committed suicide, why did they find her body in the trunk? and why would she have gone to Santa Rosa? those details seem to indicate an agenda to hide her death. is that consistent with suicides?

[lethal]

Something sounds fishy, but then again maybe she locked herself in her trunk and then took some pills or something. I hope more facts come out, but parents are often the most in denial about their kids psychological issues, so I'm not sure the dad is the best person to listen to.

Who knows.

[kasia]

d.v. is also another possibility.

[tripostrophe]

^dv? And yeah, the trunk part casts a lot of suspicion on the whole suicide thing

[kasia]

dv = domestic violence

here's a picture of the student:

http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2007/01/26/ba_brf_bay_missing_s.jpg

another article:

NEW: Autopsy set today for body of Stanford student found in car
By Lisa M. Krieger, Renee Koury, Rodney Foo and Sean Webby - MEDIANEWS
Article Last Updated: 01/26/2007 11:00:49 AM PST


Guest book: Share condolences for Mengyao "May" Zhou (Special to the Mercury News)An autopsy is scheduled this morning on the body of Mengyao ``May'' Zhou, the Stanford University student whose body was found in the trunk of her own car in a parking lot at Santa Rosa Junior College five days after she mysteriously went missing.
Santa Rosa police investigating the death said there were signs that the highly accomplished electrical engineering student may have taken her own life, though they had not ruled out the possibility of homicide.

Police did not release further information today about how Zhou may have died, or how she ended up 90 miles north of Stanford in the trunk of her Toyota Corolla, in a parking lot at the junior college.

Zhou was in her second year as a Stanford graduate student with a superlative academic record She had been a National Merit scholar in high school, a high achiever at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford, and had already earned two patents by the age of 23.

``We found some things in the car that were consistent with suicide,'' said Santa Rosa police Sgt. Lisa Banayat. ``We did not find anything consistent with foul play.''

``We don't know what in her life led her to this,'' Banayat added.

Responding to the police statement, Zhou's father, Yi-Tong, said: ``It's hard to know. I can't think or talk now.''

Mengyao Zhou's car, a silver Toyota Corolla, was found parked on the campus of Santa Rosa Junior College, according to Santa Rosa police. The car was not damaged.

At 3:30 Thursday morning, a Santa Rosa Junior College police officer noticed the car in a parking lot, police said. It looked like it had been there several days. Santa Rosa police said the campus officer ran the license plate numbers and saw it was that of a missing person. The car was towed and in the process of gathering evidence, a body was found in the trunk, police said. It was Zhou, a 23-year-old student who was last seen 10:30 a.m. Saturday leaving her Stanford residence to go shopping.

A Sonoma County coroner's spokesman, Sgt. Mitch Mana, said an autopsy is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday.

Although police identified Zhou's body, Mana said a positive identification had not yet been made and coroner's officials have not contacted Zhou's family.

Yi-Tong Zhou, a software engineer for a Santa Ana-based company, on Wednesday posted a $25,000 reward for the information leading to his daughter's whereabouts.

``We're very worried. We don't understand,'' he said on Wednesday. ``We just want our daughter back.''

He also said his daughter was not anxious about school and enjoyed Stanford, and that she had just passed rigorous qualifying examinations.

``Stress is not an issue,'' the elder Zhou had said.

A police dog tracked May Zhou's scent to the parking lot where she normally parked her car -- but the scent ended at the street outside the lot, Stanford police deputy Ken Bates said.

Bates said investigators had little to go on in their search.

``It's like everything just stopped,'' Bates said. ``We've looked at e-mail, cell phone records, financial records -- everything you would need. The paper trail ended.

Mengyao Zhou, an accomplished student with bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is assertive, happy and confident with her studies at Stanford, said her father. The Ph.D. candidate came to Stanford in 2004. She tutored in engineering at MIT and was an active member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, whose members support each other through some of MIT's most rigorous course work.

At Stanford, Zhou in 2005 was a recipient of the prestigious Gabilan Fellowship, which funds research by top doctoral students in engineering, biomedicine, the physical sciences, and the quantitative social sciences.

Zhou was a National Merit Scholar at La Jolla High School and earned perfect SAT scores. She had a straight-A average throughout high school and earned the top score on all of her Advanced Placement tests.

Fellow grad student Yuki Konda, who was one of her partners on a computer vision project, said: ``I don't know her outside of the classroom context, but she was a hard worker. She was Type A, always trying to push us forward.''

[kasia]

Santa Rosa police say Stanford student crawled into trunk to kill self
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, March 27, 2008

(03-27) 11:11 PDT SANTA ROSA -- A Stanford University graduate student committed suicide by ingesting sleeping pills before getting into the trunk of her car, which was found at a North Bay community college, Santa Rosa police have concluded in ruling out foul play.

Mengyao "May" Zhou, 23, took her own life Jan. 20, 2007, said police Sgt. Paul Henry. He cited interviews with those who knew her, an apparent suicide note she e-mailed to her younger sister and credit-card records and a store surveillance video showing Zhou buying sleeping pills.

"No evidence of foul play has been discovered during this investigation," Henry said in a statement. "All evidence discovered during this investigation supports the conclusion that May Zhou died as a result of suicide."

Three empty bottles of sleeping pills were found in the trunk of Zhou's car at Santa Rosa Junior College, along with her body, police said.

In August, Zhou's family said a private autopsy of her remains found several marks on her head and one of her wrists that were indications of blunt-force trauma.

Santa Rosa police obtained a copy of the report, prepared by the pathologist hired by the family. Dr. Kelly Arthur of the Sonoma County coroner's office reviewed it and said she stood by original findings, which reported no signs of trauma, Henry said.

Arthur concluded that Zhou from toxic levels of diphenhydramine, which is found in over-the-counter sleep medications. Zhou took more than six times the maximum dosage considered safe, authorities said.

Henry said police investigators found receipts indicating that Zhou bought four bottles of Unisom sleeping pills at stores in the days before she was last seen on the Stanford campus the morning of Jan. 20, 2007.

Police also recovered a security videotape from a Target store in Mountain View that shows Zhou purchasing Unisom, he said. She was alone and did not appear to be stressed, police said.

A forensic psychiatrist who examined an e-mail that Zhou sent to her 16-year-old sister concluded that the message "appears to be consistent with a goodbye note," Henry said.

Police do not know why Zhou would have climbed into the trunk of her car. But it was possible that she didn't want to be rescued, according to Henry. Investigators speculated that Zhou may have driven to the Santa Rosa college to attend a seminar, "Starship Earth: The Search for Life."

Her car was towed from a campus lot near the school's planetarium Jan. 25, 2007, five days after the seminar, and her body was found in the trunk.

Zhou was on her stomach, fully clothed, and her head was resting on a small sweater or similar item, police have said. Next to her body were three empty bottles of the sleeping medication - which each had held 32 tablets - along with two capsules of the drug, one empty and one half-empty bottle of water, car keys, a credit card and a small amount of cash.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

[artsfartsyjanet]

http://www.mayzhou.com/resources/E-070822-plain.htm

http://mayzhou.com

[Sunflare]

What I really find very suprising is the fact that there is no signs from the first and second autopsy that shows that this woman was raped. Just simply killed by blunt fatal blows to the body and head.

Usually when you see crimes like this happen where females are murdered, there is usually rape involved. In this case, she was found fully clothed in the trunk of the car. The two times that her body was examined by pathologists showed no indication that she was sexually assaulted before she was murdered. Very unusual.

Makes me wonder if this experienced killer is even a male to begin with. And for that matter, what in the world can be the possible motive for the crime?

[YelloFello]

Saying that she was murdered is speculative. Just reading through the articles here, it is difficult to conclude without a doubt that she committed suicide or that she was murdered. Hopefully, through a thorough investigation, the truth will be uncovered and the case resolved.

[Wuwei]

I'm taking an electrical engineering course this semester, I think about killing myself all the time.

[WONTONnPHO]

I'm taking an electrical engineering course this semester, I think about killing myself all the time.

You should be ashamed of yourself for making a joke like that! :mad:

[Paradox]

Starship earth ? What the hell it sounds like a cult meeting.

Anyways, I think it's real suspicious that she died in the trunk of a car. I can't imagine that being the usual suicide spot. Probably more investigation needs to be done in the area of foul play. It's very hard to drug anyone with sleeping pills though. You need to take a shitload of them to have any effect.