Family of a young student murdered by a Chinese man and dumped on a highway claim he WANTED to be sent to prison to avoid being deported from Australia after his visa was cancelled
- Qi Yu, 28, was killed by housemate Shuo Dong, 21, in their home in June 2018
- Her body was found near the M1 motorway in Mount Ku-Ring-Gai 47 days later
- Dong pleaded guilty to murder at the NSW Supreme Court in December 2019
- Ms Yu's parents claim Dong killed their daughter so he could stay in Australia
- They claim his visa had expired and he did not want to be deported to China
The family of a student who was brutally murdered by her housemate claim the killer wanted to be jailed in Australia because he was going to be deported to China.
Chinese student Qi 'Kathy' Yu, 28, was murdered by her housemate Shuo Dong, 21, at their sharehouse in Campsie, south-west Sydney, on June 8, 2018.
Dong pleaded guilty to murder in the NSW Supreme Court in December, with the victim's devastated parents believing he killed her in an attempt to avoid deportation.
Her parents issued a victim impact statement to court on Monday where they claimed Dong's visa had recently been cancelled.
Chillingly, the killer had even checked there wasn't a death penalty before committing the horrific murder, ensuring he would sit safely in an Australian prison.
Ms Yu's body was found wrapped up and dumped on the side of the M1 motorway near Mount Ku-Ring-Gai in Sydney's north-west 47 days after she disappeared.
Shuo Dong (pictured), 21, killed a young Chinese student to 'ensure he was jailed in Australia' and not deported to China, the victim's family have claimed
Ms Yu's parents, Zhihe Yu and Qin He, claim Dong murdered their 'intelligent, beautiful, lovely, lively and innocent' daughter to ensure he stayed in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
'We believe he preferred to go to prison rather than return to his hometown,' the statement read.
The parents claim the 21-year-old told Ms Yu that his visa had been cancelled by the Immigration Department.
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'He was afraid that our daughter would report his illegal immigration status, and feared being repatriated to China,' the statement said.
'He learned from the internet that there was no death penalty in Australia, so he decided to do premeditated murder.'
Ms Yu told her mother that Dong had planned to move out of the apartment the day after she was killed and refunded him rent immediately, according to documents seen in court.
Police recovering Ms Yu's body which was found in bushland (pictured) in north-west Sydney on July 25, 2018
Dong's chilling Google searches were also revealed in court on Monday, showing he had searched the kind of sentence he'd receive.
Two days before killing Ms Yu, Dong visited a number of web pages between 3.44pm and 3.52pm
'A Google search was made for 'How would Homicide be sentenced in Australia',' agreed court facts state.
He then searched 'legal knowledge, how many years would intentional homicide be given in Australia' and 'the sentencing criteria for intentional homicide. What expenses must be compensated for after intentional homicide.'
He also typed into Google: 'What are the characteristics of intentional homicide? And how to properly determine intentional homicide?'
Dong pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Yu in the NSW Supreme Court on December 4, 2019.
Ms Yu's parents (pictured) issued an emotional plea for information in June 2018 and now believe their daughter was murdered so the killer could avoid deportation
Agreed facts stated he also made 18 online searches for bushland areas like the Royal National Park and Ku-Ring-Gai.
The court heard Dong spent the evening of June 8 bickering with Ms Yu over cutting the lease short and bond money he owed her.
Ms Yu's parents, who were speaking to her from China via WeChat, could hear the argument in the background when the power to the unit was shut off.
The parents later contacted a neighbour to check on their daughter and Dong informed the neighbour that Ms Yu was out for dinner.
Dong and Ms Yu's third housemate said she arrived home and noticed blood-like stains in the home.
Dong's phone was used to search for directions back from Mount Colah to Campsie at about 10.30pm that night.
Police found Ms Yu's body near that section of the motorway on July 25, 2018 using data from Dong's phone.
The Campsie unit (pictured) where Ms Yu lived with her killer and another female housemate
She was discovered in a gully at Mount Ku-Ring-gai and a shirt containing Dong's DNA was wrapped tightly around her neck.
Ms Yu's parents spoke out at his sentencing hearing on Monday and said their daughter believed Australia was a safe country with no bad people.
'She did not know much about the evil phenomena in society,' they said in their victim impact statement presented to the NSW Supreme Court.
'Qi's weakness was that she had no sense of threat from other people.
'Her experience from years of Australian life was that Australia was good for everything, good people, good air, good food, good environment, and good others.'
Chilling pictures have emerged of a woman happily posing around Sydney before she was murdered and dumped next to a highway.
The pictures were submitted as evidence in the Supreme Court of NSW and showed Ms Yu smiling with a hat and ice cream in front of Bondi Beach.
She also posed with a large cone of gelato inside an ice cream shop.
Another image showed Ms Yu wearing a graduation cap and gown at the University of New South Wales.
The 28-year-old arrived in Australia in 2009 and completed a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and and a Masters in Telecommunication at UNSW.
A final image saw Ms Yu posing with two soft toys in front of a pen of cattle, resembling the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
The sentencing hearing will continue before Acting Justice Peter Hidden in August.
