University of Utah student Zhifan Dong reported fearing for her safety. She was found dead weeks later.

University of Utah student Zhifan Dong made domestic violence reports against her boyfriend to the school. She was found dead weeks later.

A trove of documents released by the University of Utah on Tuesday reveals a series of failures leading up to the death of a Chinese student, allegedly at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. 

Salt Lake City police found international student Zhifan Dong, 19, dead in an off-campus motel room on Feb. 11, when they responded to reports from the University of Utah police department that a man was threatening to kill his girlfriend, officials said. Dong’s former boyfriend, Haoyu Wang, 26, was also in the room when police arrived and claimed he had killed Dong before trying to take his own life with drugs, according to the report. He is also an international student from China who was studying at the University of Utah, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Wang has been charged with murder and the attorney representing him, Joseph C. Alamilla, entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.

He will face a competency hearing on Aug. 8, according to court documents. “Once that determination is made, we are prepared to move forward to trial and to vigorously defend against the claims made against him to a jury of his peers,” Alamilla said, adding in part that “there are mental health issues concerning everyone involved in this case that will need to be addressed prior to trial.”

For weeks before Dong’s death, the university knew she was in a dangerous intimate partner violence situation, according to a timeline released by the university. On Jan. 14, Dong reported Wang’s suicidal ideations to housing staff and made them aware that her boyfriend had been arrested by police two days earlier after an altercation with her, the timeline notes. She was issued a temporary protective order by police after the incident. The university added in the timeline that there is currently “no process or regulation requiring local police departments to notify colleges or universities of arrests or protective orders involving students.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/university-utah-student-zhifan-dong-reported-fearing-safety-was-found-rcna39067


Post ID: 451dc342-8c23-4812-914a-eb13011e6006
Rating: 5
Updated: 1 year ago
Your ad can be here
Create Post

Similar classified ads


News's other ads