BS: Dead Canadian Model

Subject: RE: BS: Dead Canadian Model
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 03:08 PM

Another Mudcat broken heart. Take care, LL.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Dead Canadian Model
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 12:39 AM

I'm from Salt Spring Island and it is a very sad little Island this past week. Diana was a good friend of my daughter's. They went to school together and worked at the same restaurant. She was a lovely girl and will be sorely missed by all who loved her. My daughter loves to travel and it's my biggest fear that something terrible might happen to her. These little islands are so small and our children are so trusting and friendly, they know very little of city life or that there are some really bad people out there.
LL

Subject: RE: BS: Dead Canadian Model
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 10:52 PM

Bruce-

You probably are doing a public service by posting these reports, if they persuade someone to be more careful about traveling in foreign countries. I'm curious what generalization you might be drawing from this incident.

Thousands of foreigners will be traveling to China to attend the Olympics. I'm also sure that hundreds of scam artists are preparing to welcome them. It's not a unique Olympic experience, but when the threat of mortal violence is added, it does give one pause.

I do wonder if "Chen Jun" is the actual criminal or just one of the usual suspects that the police picked up to close the case.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Dead Canadian Model
From: beardedbruce
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 01:17 PM

Chinese man arrested in Canadian's death
Friday, July 11, 2008 10:01:18 AM
By CARA ANNA

A young Chinese man confessed to killing a Canadian model during a robbery at her apartment, police in Shanghai said Friday.

The killing of a foreigner so close to next month's Beijing Olympic Games was an embarrassment for Shanghai police, who at first only released a two-sentence statement after the discovery of her body on Monday.

Diana O'Brien, 22, arrived in the city to work as a model less than two weeks ago and friends said she was unhappy and planned to return home early.

The circumstances of her death remain largely unclear, but 18-year-old Chen Jun was arrested Friday in nearby Anhui province. He was in possession of O'Brien's laptop and other belongings, a police statement said.

Chen told police he followed O'Brien into her shared apartment Sunday night, it said without giving further details.

Wang Jiwei, an official in the news department of Shanghai's Public Security Bureau, declined to comment.

The Foreign Affairs department in Ottawa -- which is representing O'Brien's family in the case -- could not immediately provide additional information.

The small Shanghai-based modeling agency where she had been working could not be reached by telephone, but her friends did not believe her death was work related.

"This was just really bad luck," said Barry Kazakoff, a friend and former employer in Canada, who said O'Brien had scheduled one more job before heading home. "She wanted to see the world, and the way to do that was to step out of her comfort zone and be a model."

O'Brien's modeling agency in Victoria, Canada, earlier this week released a statement denying she had been asked to dance in bars.

"She often said it was a dream come true for her and wanted to travel the world with her career," the Barbara Coultish agency's statement said. "She told us that she was happy in Shanghai and enjoyed the agency, the city and her roommates."

Shanghai has a rapidly growing but often unregulated modeling industry. The same city that hosted Salvatore Ferragamo's 80-year retrospective this spring also has foreign models, some just teenagers, dancing in bars and promoting alcohol.

But models and agencies say the industry is quickly leaving its past behind. Where backpackers and English teachers made up a large number of the modeling gigs even a half-decade ago, between 50 and 70 foreign models are now contracted to local agencies.

Foreigners bring in about one-tenth of the estimated $14.6 million the local industry makes a year, according Johnny Zheng, the director of Esee Model Management, one of Shanghai's largest agencies.

Subject: RE: BS: Dead Canadian Model
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 02:04 PM

For years, there have been reports from the far east; from Japan in particular, with China and Singapore also figuring in the mix, of young women brought over as "models" who later disappear or are found murdered. Some go over as topless dancers, others as "escorts" - some think they are actually going to be doing legitimate modeling. Large amounts of money and a pitch like, "You can make X thousands of dollars in six months or a year and come home with it" are the lures. Some have been associated loosely with the military. If there are any actual legitimate opportunites for these young girls, they are still taking a huge personal risk in going to, especially, the middle east or far east, to seek their fame and fortune. Their lives are often worth very little in those environments.

Subject: RE: BS: Dead Canadian Model
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 03:12 PM

Could have happened anywhere.

See article- "Shanghai agency shuts doors after model found dead." Geoffrey York and Ian Bailey, Toronto Globe and Mail. (July 8, 2008, on Shaw internet, taken from Wednesday's Globe and Mail).

The agency had put her to work as a bar girl, etc.; sounds like the agency was a prostitution front. Shanghai is a booming city of over 20 million; many shady operations as would be expected in any large booming city.

Subject: BS: Dead Canadian Model
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 12:15 PM

China: Police probe Canadian model death

By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 9, 1:51 AM ET



SHANGHAI, China - 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.