Vancouver
Stuck on the headboard of Amanda Zhao's bed was a written reminder of the struggle she faced to make up for the sacrifices her Chinese parents had made to send her to Canada.
'I should work hard and earn money so that mum can have a better life,' the note said. It's easy to picture the 21-year-old English-language student waking to that motto daily.
The note was among the items police recovered from the basement apartment where Zhao lived until she disappeared in October 2002. Eleven days after her boyfriend Ang Li reported her missing, Zhao's body was found stuffed in a suitcase.
At the time, Li tearfully told reporters that he blamed himself for letting her go grocery shopping alone. But from the start, Li was under police suspicion. After Zhao's remains were found, police learned that Li was heading to the airport, and officers rushed there to talk to the boyfriend again. After concluding there was not enough evidence to charge him, they helped him board a plane for Beijing.
Now, on the sixth anniversary of Zhao's death, her parents, Yang Baoying and Zhao Zishen, have arrived in Canada to put a public face on their private torment.