THE brutal murder of two Chinese graduates took a new twist today as detectives appealed for a mystery lodger to come forward.
Police hunting the killers of Xi Zhou and her boyfriend Zhen Xing Yang, both 25, have revealed an unknown man may hold clues to finding out who is responsible.
Officers have appealed for the Chinese man who was sub-letting a room with the couple in their flat in Newcastle's West End to come forward.
Miss Zhou and Mr Yang – both graduates of Newcastle University – were attacked in their ground floor flat in Croydon Road with a knife and another sharp weapon and suffered severe head injuries.
At a news conference in Newcastle, police revealed that the victims advertised one of their bedrooms for rent by placing an advert on a local Chinese website
www.ncl.cssauk.org.uk.
The website displayed two photographs of the flat together with a contact mobile telephone number for Mr Yang.
Det Supt Steve Wade, who is leading the murder inquiry, said: "We now believe that an unidentified male rented a room from the couple on or about August 1 this year.
On the August 3 or 4 Mr Yang routinely contacted his mother in China via telephone and informed her that he had taken on a new lodger.
"Mr Yang informed his mother that the new lodger was a student and that he came from the Jinzhou area of the northern seaport city Dalian.
"We have no further information to identify the lodger and enquiries to trace him have so far failed.
"We urgently need to identify this unknown lodger who could have vital information to assist the murder investigation, and to eliminate him from our enquiries."
Northumbria Police also released new photographs of the couple, which have been recovered from their computer.
The picture shows Miss Zhou, known as Ci Ci, and Mr Yang, known as Kevin, on a recent visit to Alnwick Castle in Northumberland.
Another photograph was also released of Miss Zhou singing at a local restaurant and a plan of the flat where the brutal murders took place on August 9.
It has emerged Mr Yang may have been involved in an internet betting scam and may have used forged documents to gain a place at Newcastle University.
Mr Yang had been tortured before he was hacked and stabbed to death, and the couple's cat was drowned by their killers.
Internet users on UK-based Mandarin websites had identified Mr Yang as a recruitment agent for a gambling racket which relied on the results of live Premier League football games being shown a couple of minutes later in China to beat the bookies.
Detectives are checking the murdered couple's bank accounts for possible withdrawals by their killers.
Detectives want to know if Mr Yang was tortured for details of any cash or profits of alleged internet and forgery scams being stashed away.
The officer leading the inquiry said he was keeping an open mind to the motive for the killings.
"Enquiries are continuing into allegations of internet betting scams and the obtaining of fraudulent university qualifications however our enquiries thus far do not reveal the couple's involvement in major criminality and their lifestyle and finances are not what could be expected of anyone involved in organised crime," Mr Wade said.
"The levels of violence used in the killings is completely disproportionate to the level of minor fraudulent activity discovered on the couples computer thus far.
"We must not lose sight of the fact that Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang are victims of a senseless killing and their parents and friends are left devastated and unable to comprehend what has happened."
Police have also set up an email address for people to email directly Northumbria Police. The address is
northumbriapolice@ymail.comThis has been set up to allow people to contact Northumbria Police and they can leave messages in their chosen language.
The stand alone email address has been set up in response to an Internet chat room on powerapple.com where detectives have posted an appeal in both English and Chinese.
Det Supt Wade said Mr Yang's body was found in the back bedroom, which was due to be rented to the lodger.
He said: "We know little of who this lodger was. We do not know whether he had yet moved in and whether he lived there at the time of the killings.
"None of his personal possessions were found in the flat.
"The sequence of events we have is that Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang, who was known as Kevin, had advertised the flat on the internet and we have spoken to one witness who responded to the advert and went to view the flat at the end of July.
"She reached an initial agreement with Kevin to rent the room then within a few hours had second thoughts about the length of the tenancy and told him she did not wish to take up the offer.
"She was then given three days to vacate her current address so at the end of August she rang Kevin to ask whether the room was still up for rent.
"But he said no, it had already been let.
"He telephoned his mother in China on August 4 to say he'd rented out the room to a student from Dalian.
"The trouble we have now is that we do not know whether the lodger was a real lodger, who that person is or whether they were ever in the address.
"If they have moved in then they may know things about the victims' lifestyles, arguments they may have had, or visitors to the flat.
"It is very important that we speak to this man."
He said he was worried reports the couple may have been involved in fraud and an online gambling scam may have put off witnesses from contacting police.
"As to potential motives for the killings; some people may wrongly have assumed that they brought it on themselves and that may be stopping people from coming forward.
"But they were not involved in high level stuff; there was no printing press for forged documents, no racketeering.
"They did not have a jet set lifestyle; were living in a small flat in the West end of Newcastle, involved in low level stuff which does not point towards justifying why these murders have happened.
"But it would not have been difficult for anyone looking at the website to see here was a young couple living in Newcastle who may have been worth a few pounds."
He added that a friend of the couple detectives were seeking had been traced and was due to be interviewed at the end of August, when he returned from holiday to China.
