Canadian Model Found Slain In Chinese Home

Police Investigating Death, Suspect Young Model Was Murdered

(AP)  A young Canadian model was found dead in her Shanghai apartment building this week, and police said Wednesday they suspect she was murdered.

An official in the news department of Shanghai's Public Security Bureau said that police got an emergency call early Monday about the death of Diana O'Brien. Police said she was 23, though media reports in Canada have said she was 22.

The official, who gave only her family name, Fang, gave no further details on O'Brien's death. The murder had not been mentioned in Chinese-language media in Shanghai as of Wednesday morning. A one-paragraph statement about it was posted on the Public Security Bureau's Web site.

Police said O'Brien entered China on June 24. She was working for a Shanghai-based modeling company, JH Model Management.

The Web site for JH, which says it is "one of the leading modeling agencies in the East of China for over 100 models," has not been accessible since Tuesday evening.

A young man who answered the door Tuesday night at the address the agency gave on its Web site said he didn't know of any modeling agency there. The apartment is in a high-rise building complex where several apartments have been converted into offices.

O'Brien's friends in Canada told a local newspaper they were concerned because she had told them she didn't like the work she was doing in Shanghai - promoting whiskey, for example - and wanted to cut short her three-month contract and come home.

But her boyfriend added that O'Brien had told him she always felt safe and never went anywhere alone, according to the Victoria Times Colonist.

"We are just waiting for answers at this time. It's very difficult. She wasn't into drugs or alcohol or anything like that, so you can't think it was anything except foul play," the boyfriend, Joel Berry, was quoted as saying.

A statement from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada said consular officials in Shanghai were told of O'Brien's death on Monday and that Canadian officials are in regular contact with the Chinese authorities conducting the investigation.

The statement from spokesman Andre Lemay, citing Canada's Privacy Act, said no further information could be released at this time.

[keithle1]

Ever see a rich/famous/powerful man who wasn''t surrounded by babes? I know it''s not his looks they''re after.

How many magazines feature naked men & are made for straight women? 1. Hell of a lot more are made for gay men. Gay men look at a man the way a straight man looks at women.

How many handsome men do women see in a day/week/month that make them look twice?

[wardoglrs]

Lets get this straight America has 2.4 million prisoners. Congress just passed an illegal bill called the FISA. The us bomb the *** with an atom bomb twice.
The us killed 1.5 million Iraqis and destroyed there info structure.
The us has started 11 wars which none were won killing thousands.
The us is threatening Iran with war and your telling me China is a threat?

[loreli3]

Yup...women don''t want their men plain, homely and ugly either. i know i don''t.

[keithle1]

Nancy Grace is AWFUL. Be afraid, be very afraid. She''s so insufferable. Always posing. Tries hard to look concerned her exaggerated facial expressions. The self-appointed saviour of missing persons & lost dogs everywhere. So self-righteous. Ugh.

[keithle1]

If a man is rich, he can look like Jabba the Hutt & he''ll be up to his eyebrows in young, fresh, tasty you-know-what.

[susanhelit]

This is no real story - people die everywhere, she was not rich nor famous, nor is this an abnormal case. Might have been a jealous Canadian boyfriend, might have been a robbery gone wrong. Happens every day in every state, every country in the world.

[susanhelit]

Sounds like "FreeTibet" likes to spread lies. No guides are required, nor government permission. My uncle spent 2 months in China, all through the back-country, small villages, his phrase book and a few lessons in hand. I always wonder, with someone spreading something so blatantly false, why they think it will work, and what they hope to get out of it, that justifies their lies.

[ricaltman-2009]

Like I said, I''ve been to China twice in the last year for a total of five weeks and was allowed to freely roam anywhere I wanted. No one ever asked a question and there were no guides unless I wanted one. Beijing, Xian, Yangtze River, Fuzhou, Wuyishan, Dali, Lijiang, Zhongdian, Xiamen.

[ricaltman-2009]

That''s nonsense about guides and spies. I''ve been to China twice in the last few months for tourism. I was never approached by or asked to take a guide. The Chinese government may be oppressive, but I never actually saw anything overt. The government may be oppressive in the background and you may have to live there to feel it, but all I saw was to all outward appearances a free society.

[yongamerica]

patriot12436 - I too will not visit China until its fascist repressive regime is removed. China is living under the black clouds of tyranny with no way except an uprising to escape the solid rock grip of its communist leaders and principles. I don''t like the idea of being monitored and steered by a guide whose job it is to secretly obtain as much information about every tourist they "guide" as possible (are they potential candidates for spys?). There is no such thing as freely roaming china as a party Chaperon is assigned to every tourist. Like every Chinese citizen, the tourists need government permission to travel ANYWHERE.

FREE TIBET