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A California college student was murdered inside an off-campus apartment building as officials hunt for a person of interest who jumped out a second-floor window to escape the crime scene.
Menghan Zhuang’s body was found inside her unit at the Vistas condominium complex in the Newhall community of Santa Clarita just after 6:45 p.m. on Feb. 4, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said.
Zhuang, a Chinese national living in the US on a student visa, was a senior studying at the California Institute for Arts in Valencia, approximately five miles from her home.
The 23-year-old, known to friends as Emily King, had been living in the US for three-and-a-half years.
Zhuang’s roommate discovered her unresponsive in their shared unit and called for help at 6:47 p.m.
Officials found Zhuang suffering from several upper body injuries but wouldn’t disclose the extent or type of injuries. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police say Zhuang had invited an unnamed “male companion” into her home the night before her death.
The man was captured on video footage escaping the building through Zhuang’s second-story bedroom window hours before her body was discovered.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said the man “appears to be of Asian descent.”
“This person is the person of interest who we want to identify and locate,” Lieutenant Michael Modica of the Sheriff’s Homicide Division said Thursday.
Detectives ruled out Zhuang’s roommate as a suspect who has been cooperating in the investigation.
Modica called Zhuang’s death a “senseless and violent act” that wasn’t random.
“Based on this investigation, it is clear that this was not a random act of violence and Menghan somehow knew the person of interest,” Modica said.
Modica didn’t confirm the relationship between Zhuang and the person of interest but said detectives were investigating the link between the two.
He also didn’t acknowledge reports of Zhuang having an older boyfriend or if there was any domestic violence history in the relationship.
County Supervisor Kathryn Barger filed a motion $20,000 reward for information on the homicide.
The reward has to be passed by the LA County Board of Supervisors during their Feb. 18 meeting but will be retroactive to Feb. 13.
The California Institute of the Arts was cooperating in the investigation and helped the sheriff’s office in contacting Zhuang’s family in China.
Her dad and sister had arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Modica said.
