Jiao Dan's friends speak out
Friends of Jiao Dan, the Chinese ECU student killed in Innaloo earlier this week, spoke with 3rd Degree reporter Liying Wang. One of the most heartbreaking comments came from a friend who said: "As a boy, I should have protected her at that time, but I didn't. Who could understand the tears inside my heart? My heart hurts to speak to you, but I hope your writing could appeal to witnesses to stand up and expose the killer."
The killer who murdered a 22-year-old Chinese female student named Jiao Dan, who studied at ECU, has not been found by police four days after her body was discovered. But Miss Jiao's death has shocked many Chinese people; particularly other Chinese students studying in Perth.
Min Ding, is a Chinese student studying at ECU and also the closest friend of Miss Jiao. She told 3rd Degree: "Jiao’s death has had huge impact on me, her family, friends, classmates, Chinese and international students, we need to prevent same things happening here again."
Another Chinese student studying at ECU, who described himself as a friend and classmate of Miss Jiao but preferred not to be publicly named, also shared his feelings with 3rd Degree.
He said: "I am too sad to say something, all her friends just cried instead of talking to media, we can not even mention her name, we want to avoid this topic on campus, but we can't.
"When my friends cried, I felt terribly and extremely sad, but I lost my tears, I asked myself why others could cry and I couldn't have any tears to express my sadness for her, I do feel sad and I am afraid of my non-tears reaction makes them sad too.
"My conscience is blamed every night, I couldn't sleep since I heard she was killed so cruelly. She was just a very nice girl, always smiling. Why should she be punished in this way?
"She studied very hard and always tried to be the best. I still can't accept she left us. I can’t even look at her photos in the report. I am so sad and my body was numbed when I heard the news, my hands just lost the strength to move which has never happened to me before and I am 22 now."
Another Chinese student who prefered not to be named said: "I am not her very close friend, we used to study together, so I know she was a very nice girl. She had lots of friends around her, she never asked her friends to pick her up from the train station after work, but she was always happy to help others and never wanted to bother them."
Many students who didn't know Miss Jiao have also had very strong reactions to this tragedy.
Huang Yong, a Chinese student currently studying in ECU, also expressed his opinions: "News spread very quickly among Chinese students. I got shocked when I had the calls from friends; they told me Perth was no more the safe place to stay. I am a boy, but my friends told me 'be careful when you go out'.
"Same Thing could happen to anyone from all over the world. If local people were killed, they don’t need my attention, media here will chase all the time. I might just read the news, but she was an international student from China, as a Chinese, I pay more attention to the further investigation," he said.
Lin Lin, a female Chinese student studying at ECU Churchlands campus thinks about Miss Jiao's death every day. She said: "I didn’t know her but I wish I could do something for her. In the class, when we confirmed that the killed girl was friends with our classmates, we just felt murder seems to have happened on ourselves, we have never felt so frightened. It could happen to me."
Kong Di, a Chinese student, also studying at ECU said: "When I went to campus, one of my foreigner friends just gave me a big hug said to me 'God, you are still alive, we thought you were the girl killed in Innaloo because you lived there,' I am moved by these people who care about me, I hope more people can care about Miss Jiao."
Xu Jun, who graduated from Curtin University, is concerned about this case very much because he still remembers the girl killed at his university last year. He said: "I was working around Innaloo shopping center, when my boss told me an Asian girl was killed, and I prayed 'please don’t be Chinese', unfortunately police said she was from China.
"I feel so sad that a girl from my country was killed in Perth! Even though I didnt know Miss Jiao before, this morning, I bought flowers and sent them to the place she was killed. What I really hope is that they find the killer as soon as possible."
Reaction to the current investigation by police and ECU's action
Miss Ding said: "I am next-of-kin in Miss Jiao's case now and I will have to cope with her parents, police detection, university affairs and others. I can see the processes or actions of the police and the university are going well now.
"I appreciate people’s help and attention on Jiao’s murder; the police are trying their best, working day and night to find the killer.
"I experienced how police worked day and night for Jiao's death. Personally I can't complain so far because they haven't found the killer but I do hope they can give us a satisfactory answer as soon as possible."
Miss Lin said: “Whatever the murderer's reasons are, we need to find out the truth, government and police should take high responsibilities on this case, we are waiting for the further investigation.”
Mr Xu said: "Several days have gone, we don’t want to listen 'she was partially clothed', we need to find out that who the killer is,"
Comments on security in Perth
In Miss Ding's words: "Jiao was killed in a local community, when she was crying out for help nobody came out to save her life, I want to say to local residents, 'please create a safe place for us, we love to study here and work for you all, we just can not see any more tragedies here, we are friendly and we need more Neighborhood Watch and responsibilities for others'."
She also wanted tell other people to be cautious: "I understand you are all shocked by this tragedy. The first group of people I want to talk to are international students: Don't put yourself at risk, be really careful when you go out, especially Chinese students; you know how painful this must be for your parents considering the one child policy.
"Students can’t stop using public transport and you can't stop going to work to support studying here. Life and study are already tough here; we don’t want any more risks in our lives."
Mr Xu said: "This morning (Tuesday) I went to the place Miss Jiao was killed, it is about 100 meters behind the shopping center, the lights are still on. It was only 50 meters away from her home, somebody must know something about her screaming for help or fighting, I hope some witnesses come out to provide clues.
"Miss Jiao has gone, but we still need to do something for people who are still alive, ‘just do something, and don’t let these mo--er fu--ers get another chance on us."
Thoughts about her parents
Miss Lin said: "My first reaction was how her parents would accept this disaster? She must be the only child in her family; we couldn't imagine how hard it would be for her parents who brought her up to the age of 22. They sent her here for study, they paid a lot with high expectations on her but she was killed in a place where her parents thought it should be absolutely safe."
Miss Kong said: "My first reaction was to think her parents would die when they heard the news, only one daughter, it is not easy for her to come overseas and for her to be killed, this is not what our parents want to see, I feel so sorry for her parents."
Yingzhou Zhang, the secretary of WA Chinese students' union and Chinese students' chairman of Curtin University told 3rd Degree that he has tried to organize a donation for a ceremony involving others who cared about her death.
