Diana Gabrielle O’Brien, 22 Year Old British Columbia Model Found Dead in China (Homicide)

Diana Gabrielle O’Brien, a 22 year old British Columbia, Canada model has been found dead in China. It is being reported that the death is being investigated as a murder. An autopsy is scheduled to be performed.

SHANGHAI – A 22-year-old model from British Columbia has died mysteriously in China.

“She was found dead near Shanghai,” Chalmers said. “There will be an autopsy (Monday night). We don’t know the cause of death. Every thing else is rumour.”

CTV News is reporting that police are saying her death is being investigated as murder.

China: Police probe Canadian model death

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.

According to the report from Canada.com, Diana Gabrielle O’Brien’s death may have been the result of a break in and robbery gone wrong. Diana Gabrielle O’Brien, 22, was found stabbed and fully clothed in a stairwell of her Shanghai apartment building.

O’Brien’s boyfriend, Berry, said Tuesday Chinese authorities reported the apartment was ransacked.

“Everything had been stolen from the apartment – all their cameras and laptops,” said Berry, 32, in an interview with Canwest News Service.

The body of B.C. model Diana Gabrielle O’Brien has been found near Shanghai, her family was told Monday, July 7, 2008. (Facebook.com)

Agency disputes concerns about slain model’s work

The company’s website claims it’s one of the top three modelling agencies in China. But when CTV’s Steve Chao visited the agency’s office, located in a run-down building, an employee said he had never heard of O’Brien.

There are reports O’Brien wanted to work as a photo model, as she had previously done in Milan, Italy, but instead was given work to promote whisky in bars.

• Canadian model found dead on Chongming Island
• Canadian Model Found Dead in Shanghai
• B.C. model’s apartment sealed off; Chinese police investigate, robbery suspected
• Shanghai police confirm death of Canadian model

UPDATE I: Agency that brought model to China vanishes without a trace after her death

Less than 48 hours after the killing of Diana Gabrielle O’Brien, the modelling agency that lured her to China has shut down its website, closed its doors, and vanished into the depths of Shanghai.

Its phones ring without answer. Its low-rent offices are abandoned. Those with apparent connections to the agency are refusing to talk. Even the Shanghai police are unwilling to speak of the case. The slaying of Ms. O’Brien, the 22-year-old model from Saltspring Island, B.C., has exposed the dark and dangerous side of China’s fast-growing modelling business. Dozens of modelling agencies have sprung up in China’s biggest cities in recent years, recruiting hundreds of models from North America and Europe, but many are small fly-by-night agencies that send their models to dubious jobs at nightclubs and bars.

UPDATE II: Murdered model’s apartment described as grisly scene

Police have sealed off the aging Shanghai apartment building, which is now being described as a blood-soaked crime scene, as officers confirmed yesterday they are investigating the murder of an aspiring Canadian model.

Charlotte Wood, 21, had gone out with friends Sunday night, the same night the apartment she shared with 22-year-old B.C. model Diana Gabrielle O’Brien was ransacked. When she came home, she found O’Brien lying face down, said Wood’s mother, Yvonne Clarke.

UPDATE III: Chen Jun Confesses to Robbing & Murdering Diana Gabrielle O’Brien  

Days after Diana O’Brien’s body was discovered, police in Shanghai said Friday they had arrested 18-year-old Chen Jun. Police said Chen confessed to following her into her high-rise apartment, robbing her and killing her when she tried to fight him off.

The slaying embarrassed police, who waited two days after O’Brien’s body was found to release a statement — a brief two sentences — about her death.

UPDATE IV: Suspect Chen Jun apprehended in case of slain Canadian model

His name is Chen Jun. He’s 18-years-old. And he was captured this morning in rural Anhui province, hundreds of kilometers from Shanghai. Some, actually most, facts are vague: In addition to cash and a laptop computer police say belonged to the victim Diana O’Brien, Chen was allegedly carrying “a weapon.” We’re also somewhat puzzled by this sentence: “The statement said police narrowed down suspects to Chen after they received reports that a medium-sized man was spotted riding a bicycle near the victim’s residence.” Police tracked this medium-sized Chinese man with a bicycle from Shanghai to Zhejiang to Anhui. The Shanghai Daily story says Chen confessed to the murder and claimed it was a robbery gone bad, which basically falls right in line with how police framed the incident from the first time they spoke on the matter.