About June/July last year an overseas student named Zhang "Tina" Yu (26) from my university was reported missing, I didn't really pay a lot of attention to the fact, since I never knew her or her friends. About a week or so after her disappearance it came out that she was murdered and her body was found in a river. Two men were charged with the murder and a girlfriend of one, and a neighbor were charged with not reporting it, the neighbor was also charged with aiding in the disposal of the body.
The newspaper reported that she had been out drinking and at the end of her night had gone and seen a friend working at La Bella pizza place in Sandybay. Tina's friend introduced her to two men and Tina ended up getting a lift home with them, and they ended up murdering her.
Tina's best friend was distraught about the fact that she had declined to go out that night because she had a test the next day, saying if she had gone out it never would have happened. And the friend at the pizza place was horrified at what happened and felt terrible for introducing them.
The news put around if it was a racist attack, which was eventually said to be no, that it was just coincidental Tina was Chinese. No details of what actually happened were released, and nothing more was said about the incident.
There was a huge memorial service and a large amount of students walked from the uni to St Davids park. She was a really popular happy girl full of life and had loads of friends.
The two men who did the act were Stavros Pappadopoulos and Daniel Joe Williams, both 22. Stavros pleaded guilty to the murder, and is awaiting sentence. Daniel not guilty.
The trial for Daniel began last week and the details of the horrendous attack were made public. My mum and I were talking when the radio started reporting it and we just went silent in horror.
Apparently Stavros had said to his friend Daniel "Tonight is one night in a million. I want to kill a bitch tonight" and then they had cruised around looking for a girl to pick up. Tina was introduced to them at the pizza place and got a lift with them to Stavros' apartment, in the car she played with a little dog in the back seat. When they got there Stavros made her a drink that was pretty much a full glass of vodka with a mouthful of lemonade.
She took one sip and clearly didn't enjoy it, and started preparing to leave, getting her bag and sending a message on her phone. It was at this point Stavros came up behind her with a concrete besser block and threw it on her head. Daniel noted surprise that she was still conscious after the blow. She got up bleeding and Stavros repeatedly punched her, she begged to be let go, said she would do anything money sex w/e, so Stavros held her up against a wall and shoved his hand up her skirt before dragging her into another room, she agreed to have sex with him but refused to have a shower to clean off the blood. She was dragged around by the hair alot in and out of the room repeatedly abused and attacked.
The attack lasted between 1 and 2 hours before she just begged them to kill her. They first tried to wrap a sheet around her neck, and then an electrical cord that snapped and a clothesline wire, after all these attempts failed they drowned her in the bath.
And then they have admitted to indecently touching her dead body and making racist comments about her private parts. Daniel says he doesn't know if Stavros had sex with her after she died. The two wrapped her in a blanket and took her to the car, the neighbor helped them to put her in the boot, and then they drove to Tyenna river and dumped the body.
The coroner said were death was ultimately the result of drowning, but there was evidence of attempted strangleation and there were at least 3 severe head injuries that damaged the brain and probably would have killed her later.
I can't imagine how horrifying that night was and it makes me feel so sick, I hope they both get life in prison its such a horrifying thing they did.
Daniel is trying to put all the blame on Stavros and get out of it, even though he didn't start the attack or play a major role, his aiding (which he claims was out of fear) and not doing anything to stop the attack makes him just as responsible and just as much a part of it. I hope the jury find him guilty or murder.
I was really disgusted just reading the details of the attack, and I thought the internet had jaded me to such things. It reminds me of a similar killing in America, I forget the names but it was really brutal and torturous...simply not human at all. It was a white couple (bf + gf) who were kidnapped and killed over the process of several days, by I think black people (god I'm going to look so racist if I'm wrong about this part).
Really disturbing, I'll never know why people like these exist in the world.
So they killed someone because they just felt like it? That's just so disgusting I don't know what to say. Even a teenager understands the gift of life.
I can't imagine how horrifying that night was and it makes me feel so sick, I hope they both get life in prison its such a horrifying thing they did.
I hope they get life in prison and then get murdered by another inmate on their first day. Wouldn't that be ideal?
No no, not on the first day, that would be too easy. They should be raped by some other inmates for the first few decades. Honestly, though, this is really sick. I truly hope that the guy who just wanted to kill someone for no reason was mentally ill.
I can't imagine how horrifying that night was and it makes me feel so sick, I hope they both get life in prison its such a horrifying thing they did.
I hope they get life in prison and then get murdered by another inmate on their first day. Wouldn't that be ideal?
No no, not on the first day, that would be too easy. They should be raped by some other inmates for the first few decades. Honestly, though, this is really sick. I truly hope that the guy who just wanted to kill someone for no reason was mentally ill.
I don't know, During the trial Daniel said that Stavros listened to psychotic rap music and had violent parts in his personality, said that he had abused his gf, and told her he would kill her family if she broke up with him, and that he had been cruel to animals. A lot of things to take the pressure off himself to get a lesser charge. He said at the time of the attack Stavros looked like he was in a crazy state with his eyes completely black. I have friends who were friends with Stavros and they said he didn't seem like someone who would do that, that he seemed like a normal gentle quiet person, but I don't know how well they knew him. Daniel said he smoked a huge amount of cannabis during the attack 15 bongs or something, saying he was trying to escape from reality, and the only reason he aided his friend was because he was scared Stavros would turn on him. The whole thing is so disturbing and shocking, I feel horrified for her friends and family, and horrified and so sad for her and how she must have felt during the attack.
This story just ruined my day . I feel like vomiting. Way too graphic details. Like I didn't hate people enough as it is. Ugh, having a long-term girlfriend just makes me that much more nauseous when hearing of these types of stories. Makes me feel like every time she goes out alone, there'll be some psycho rapist murderer waiting around the corner.
On April 26 2010 11:25 PanoRaMa wrote: I was really disgusted just reading the details of the attack, and I thought the internet had jaded me to such things. It reminds me of a similar killing in America, I forget the names but it was really brutal and torturous...simply not human at all. It was a white couple (bf + gf) who were kidnapped and killed over the process of several days, by I think black people (god I'm going to look so racist if I'm wrong about this part).
Really disturbing, I'll never know why people like these exist in the world.
Yeah... Stories like this really hit me hard. Can you just imagine the cold horror that these people feel as this happened to them.... Forced to watch your girlfriend get gang raped before tortuing you and her to death. Fuck.
On April 26 2010 11:25 PanoRaMa wrote: I was really disgusted just reading the details of the attack, and I thought the internet had jaded me to such things. It reminds me of a similar killing in America, I forget the names but it was really brutal and torturous...simply not human at all. It was a white couple (bf + gf) who were kidnapped and killed over the process of several days, by I think black people (god I'm going to look so racist if I'm wrong about this part).
Really disturbing, I'll never know why people like these exist in the world.
Yeah... Stories like this really hit me hard. Can you just imagine the cold horror that these people feel as this happened to them.... Forced to watch your girlfriend get gang raped before tortuing you and her to death. Fuck.
Those are the points where I'd go berserk and just fight them until I get beaten to death. I guess some people just try to sit there and pray it's all a nightmare they're going to wake from, but for me I'd reach a threshold where my life just doesn't matter that much anymore. Better to try to attack them and hope a chance for escape presents itself. I don't get how some of these people stick it out as if hoping it won't get that bad. If someone kidnaps you, chances are they're going to do something nuts. Seeing as they already took the first step in breaking the law in a major way, things like murder laws just aren't a big deterrent anymore.
Obviously these people should be removed from society. It doesn't matter if they had some severe psychological disorders or anything.
It's reading things like this and feeling nausea that makes me glad that media hasn't desensitized me to the horrors of real life. If I heard this as fiction, it wouldn't have affected me so much. I guess I still feel human.
If I could, I'd do something to help the family. Is there anything?
I hope they get a fair trial, what really happened becomes evident, and they are punished accordingly.
I also hope they become human enough to be tortured by what they did the rest of their lives, so much that they prevent other people from doing the same thing.
EPT
