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The 22-year-old was found dead in a 54th floor flat in Manhattan. Photo: Handout

Chinese graduate found dead in bathtub in upscale New York apartment block

  • Former boyfriend of Ying Huang arrested by police over 22-year-old’s death
  • Berkeley College graduate’s body showed severe signs of bruising

A Chinese university graduate has been found dead in mysterious circumstances in an apartment block in an upmarket district of New York last week.

Police sources told local media outlets that Ying Huang, 22, had been found dead in a bathtub in a 54th floor flat in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.

Huang had recently graduated from Berkeley College, a private university based in New York and New Jersey, and her parents were travelling from China to meet police investigators.

Police have arrested and questioned her former boyfriend, but have not charged him with any crime, the New York Post reported on Monday.

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“Initially, they arrested him. Then the DA [district attorney] felt they wanted to wait until the autopsy was complete,” a police source was quoted as saying.

Huang was last seen partying with him on Wednesday night before they both went back to her apartment, according to surveillance camera footage from her building.

It also shows the man leaving her apartment two hours after entering.

Her former boyfriend told police they had been drinking that night, according to the source. Police arrived at the scene later on Thursday.

“They found the apartment in disarray and her on her right side in the bathtub, submerged under water with severe bruising,” the source told the newspaper.

What caused the bruising is currently unknown.

Tragedy far from home: Chinese students who went missing abroad

More than 600,000 Chinese students pursued their higher education studies overseas in 2017 – an 11.74 per cent increase from 2016 – according to Chinese government statistics.

Over the years, a number of killings or unexplained deaths of Chinese students have made the headlines.

Chinese overseas student Yan Sihong, 35, was found dead in her London flat in February. The King’s College London postgraduate’s death was not treated as suspicious by police.

Another woman, Zhang Yingying, 26, disappeared in June last year from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.

Police have charged her suspected abductor, 28-year-old Brendt Christensen, with her kidnapping and murder although her body has never been found.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: University graduate found dead in bathtub
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