Homicide officials with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department announced a $20,000 reward for anyone who has information leading to the arrest of the person who murdered a California Institute of the Arts student found dead in her Newhall apartment last week.
Menghan Zhuang, 23, pronounced MOO-hahn, a Chinese national whose chosen name was Emily King, was found by her roommate at 6:45 p.m. Feb. 4 in her home, according to Lt. Mike Modica of the Homicide Bureau.
Modica said detectives believe King, a fourth-year student at CalArts, was murdered by a man she knew, whom she let into her apartment the evening before she was killed.
Detectives are now focusing their efforts on identifying one person, they said Thursday.
“During the investigation, investigators learned that Menghan had a male companion and he arrived at the location the night before,” Modica said during a news conference Thursday morning at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. “The investigators have a video of the same male exiting Menghan’s apartment through her second-story bedroom window on the afternoon of the day she was discovered.”
LASD officials did not have an approximate height and weight, describing him only as “a male in his 20s of Asian descent.”
SCV Sheriff’s Station deputies responded to a “person unresponsive” call and rendered first aid, but officials declared her dead at the scene from the result of “multiple injuries,” according to the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s website.
Modica said Thursday officials were not releasing the nature of the injuries to “preserve the integrity of the investigation.”
He also said the roommate has been cooperative, and was not believed to be a suspect. “I want to make it clear that her roommate is helping with this case,” he said.
Modica also said it was clear the attack “was not a random act of violence” due in part because it appeared King knew the assailant. She’s lived in the United States for the last three and a half years, he added.
Detectives could be seen at the home throughout the night that King was found and most of the following afternoon. Modica said detectives have been working around the clock for the past nine days interviewing witnesses and collecting video surveillance footage, which is how they obtained the screenshot released Thursday.
Detectives said CalArts has been very cooperative and there is believed to be no threat to the campus.
Modica said King’s father and sister had flown in from China on Wednesday with help from the Chinese consulate, and they were expected to meet with CalArts officials Thursday to collect King’s things. Neither were able to attend the news conference, he added.
“The father has lost a daughter and the sister lost her sister,” he added. “They’re very hurt by this incident.”
Anyone with information about this incident can contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call “Crime Stoppers” by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), use your smartphone by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile APP on Google play or the Apple App Store or by using the website lacrimestoppers.org.
Below: LASD news conference video.
