Chinese teenager Googled ‘what are the penalties for murder in Australia’ then killed his 28-year-old flatmate in cold blood – before another internet search led police to her rotting body
- Shuo Dong, 20, pleaded guilty to killing housemate Qi ‘Kathy’ Yu on Wednesday
- Ms Yu was last seen at their south-west Sydney sharehouse on June 8, 2018
- Dong was charged with her murder less than a week after she disappeared
- He searched ‘what are the penalties for murder in Australia’ before fatal attack
Shuo Dong, 20, pleaded guilty to murdering Qi ‘Kathy’ Yu (pictured) on Wednesday, more than one-year after she was last seen at their Campsie unit in Sydney’s south-west
A Chinese teenager who killed his 28-year-old flatmate Google searched ‘what are the penalties for murder in Australia’ before the fatal attack.
Shuo Dong, 20, pleaded guilty to murdering Qi ‘Kathy’ Yu on Wednesday, more than a year after she was last seen at their Campsie unit in Sydney’s south-west.
Dong made an online search about Australia’s penalties for murder and ‘what are the differences between under age guilty plea to adult offenders’ on June 6, 2018, two days before the killing, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The then 19-year-old also made 18 searches on bushland areas around Sydney, including the Royal National Park, Mount Colah, Berowra and Ku-Ring-Gai, according to agreed facts.
Ms Yu was last seen on June 8 at her Campsie unit which she shared with Dong and another woman.
Dong made an online search about Australia’s penalties for murder and ‘what are the differences between under age guilty plea to adult offenders’ on June 6, 2018, two days before the killing
She was speaking to her mother from China via WeChat when the power to the unit shut off about 7.30pm.
‘OMG. We’re having a power outage … something is not right, only our household is having a power outage,’ Ms Yu wrote in her final message to her mother.
Amid her panic, Ms Yu’s mother began to contact neighbours living in Campsie.
Dong told one neighour Ms Yu was out for dinner when they knocked on the door about 7.45pm.
The third housemate came home later that evening to find a red stain on the stairs and noticed the floor was unusually clean.
Dong Google searched how to get home to Campsie from the M1 Motorway at Mount Colah about 10.30pm.
Almost seven weeks after Ms Yu disappeared, her wrapped body was found in bushland near an emergency stop on the highway at Mount Kuring-gai on July 25
Dong was charged with his housemate’s murder less than a week after she disappeared.
Numerous searches of bushland were fruitless, even after phone signals narrowed the search area to bushland north of Sydney.
Almost seven weeks after Ms Yu disappeared, her wrapped body was found on July 25 in bushland near an emergency stop on the highway at Mount Kuring-gai, which Dong had searched on Google.
Dong will appear in NSW Supreme Court on February 14.