Stanford student's body found

[Sequoia]

Stanford graduate student missing for five days was found dead Thursday in the trunk of her compact car in Santa Rosa, and may have taken her own life, police said.

But her father, who learned of the death from reporters and complained of little information from Santa Rosa or Stanford police, said he doubted her death was a suicide.

"My daughter was very organized," said Yitong Zhou of San Diego. "If she had wanted to commit suicide, she would have sent some kind of indication. I don't see any evidence there, any indication she was depressed."

His daughter Mengyao "May" Zhou, a 23-year-old electrical engineering student, disappeared after leaving her on-campus home Saturday, telling friends she was completing errands.


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/26/BAG5RNPJ5L1.DTL

Suicide!? No way. I'm not buying it. I think she was murdered. But the keystone cops could really screw things up.

[maveric]

1. Who locks themself in their trunk and kills themselves?

I dont think so!

[yellowcanine]

5. I don't know, it's as likely a place as any. People committing suicide aren't

exactly thinking rationally. I think it is a bit presumptious to say this is unlikely. If someone is really intent on suicide the last thing they want is to be disturbed. The trunk of a car might have some appeal as a place that would offer some privacy to do the act. Why don't we let the police and the medical examiner do their investigation before offering our armchair analysis?

[pitohui]

14. was she a high functioning autistic?

i am and can think of two reasons this would appeal -- one, the family won't find me and the family home won't be spoiled by bad memories or blood sprayed all over the place ala the suicidal wife in last tango in paris, two, sometimes being enclosed in space is comforting and i don't really know why this should be so or how to explain why it is so but it is

i won't rule out suicide if the evidence is there because i could easily see why i might choose this if for some reason i had to check out

SOME suicides kill themselves to cause pain to their families, THEY may want to go "splat" all over the place where someone they love will be scarred forever, but SOME suicides kill themselves for other reasons and truly wish there was a way to do it w.out causing pain to others

[tblue]

2. Yeah, how many people commit suicide locked in their trunk?

[Broderick]

27. ?

Seems kind of odd to me.

[flamingyouth]

3. She killed herself in her trunk?

That seems a tad unlikely to me.

[Sequoia]

4. I know. But the keystone cops....

We had another incident of a guy here in Santa Rosa who was beat up and locked in a trunk. He's alive but doesn't remember anything but he was beat up. The car was found by Cal Trans workers hanging off a cliff or something. No one kills themself in a trunk. Santa Rosa is 60 miles or so from where she lived and the Santa Rosa Campus is quite near the 101. It is very strange. She had so much going for her. Too bad there weren't any cameras around. That's a very quite and unassuming campus.

[Unperson]

6. A lot of weird shit goes down at Stanford.

It's the conservative breeding ground for the west coast. Social engineering, Condileeza Rice, Stanford Research Institute. On edit: I left out Herbert Hoover and the Hoover Institute.

[Xithras]

7. Murder? Sucide? It might have just been an accident.

There was a horrible case in New Jersey a few years ago where a couple of boys accidentally locked themselves in the trunk of a car in their backyard. There was a huge search for the boys when they vanished, but the bodies weren't found for a few days. It turned out that they'd suffocated...the trunk was sealed so well that no air could get inside. Her car, being fairly new, probably would have had the same problem.

Woman trying to get something out of her trunk falls inside. Trunk lid closes, and nobody notices the car for a few days. By the time the trunk is opened, she's long since suffocated. Entirely plausible.

[lukasahero]

8. "her compact car"

How likely is it that she fell into the trunk of a "compact car"? I might buy this if it were a Lincoln. It's not remotely "plausible" in a compact.

She was a 23 year old engineering student, not a child.

[Xithras]

9. I disagree.

The car was a Toyota Corolla, the same make and model as the one which killed the three boys. The Corolla has a reasonably large trunk. Now while I admit to not having seen a photo of the woman, it's probably a safe bet that she's Asian, based on the name. Asian women in general tend to be shorter and have a slighter build than many (again, generalization...I fully admit the possibility that she may have been 6'5" and 350lbs...I'm just playing the odds here).

So here's a photo of a Corolla trunk:
.

Short Asian woman tries to retrieve an item from her reasonably sized trunk. Item has slid forward, so she has to climb in slightly. Trunk lid falls on her (or some ass slams it on her) causing her to fall in and become trapped.

It's not far-fetched, and it's happened before. It's certainly just as likely as the theory that someone murdered her and made it look like a suicide.

[pitohui]

15. i have a toyota corolla and you're right

i could easily fit in the trunk

what a tragedy if this is a terrible accident!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. I have a camry.

And there's a little passageway between the trunk and the back seat. Looks like it's there in the photo too.

Yours?

[pitohui]

18. huh, you know what, i think you're right

it's already dark here, i'll get off my lazy duff and take a better look in the morning

[Xithras]

30. Can it be opened from the trunk side?

My last car had a passageway, but it could only be opened by pushing a button behind the headrest inside the car. How do the Toyotas open?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

32. Yes

Plus there's plenty of ventilation.

[ContraBass Black]

19. Does your Corolla have an emergency trunk handle?

[SayWhatYo]

28. No wonder I've never seen a mobster in a Toyota

[aikoaiko]

26. don't the sears push out? modern interior trunk release?

[Sequoia]

10. Don't take that detective job okay.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. Heh.

Maybe Luca Brasi died while falling into a piano. No idea how that piano got into the river. But it's plausible.

:eyes:

[malaise]

11. That is absolutely ridiculous n/t

[Xithras]

12. Lol! Why? Here are some actual numbers.

Since 1970, 1250 people have been locked in trunks in 992 different incidents. More than 300 people have been killed in these incidents since 1970, which works out to about 25% of those adults locked inside. While kids do tend to get locked in trunks more often than adults, of those 300 dead only 37 were under the age of 14.

http://www.kidsandcars.org/trunc/factsheet.htm

I didn't just pull this out of my ass. People do die this way with some regularity, and absent any evidence to the contrary, it's just as likely as a murder or suicide explanation. If there is EVIDENCE of a murder or suicide, that may change things. But at this point there's no evidence being made available to the public one way or the other.

[malaise]

20. With some regularity?

More than 300 people have been killed in these incidents since 1970

That is ridiculous. How does 300 people killed in 37 years equal regularity? :rofl:

[Xithras]

29. Umm...do the math.

300 people in 37 years works out to about 8 dead a year, or one dead every 6 weeks. While it's certainly uncommon, it isn't rare. It happens, it kills people, and I really don't understand why some of you have such a hard time getting that. Shit happens, people are clumsy, and sometimes it kills them. Why all the hostility?

[malaise]

34. Not hostile at all

just amused at your use of regularity. Peace.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. I find that a little implausible.

It's one thing for kids to be playing around in trunks. Or adults who are goofing around.

But getting stuck in a trunk accidentally? I ain't buying it.

[SayWhatYo]

23. Sounds like something I'm capable of...

[SoCalDem]

13. I don't buy it for a minute..

Suicide after putting yourself in your trunk? Give me a break..:eyes:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

21. Yes, found in her own trunk would seem on the face of it to make suicide seem UNlikely.

[Dastard Stepchild]

22. How sad!

My hopes that the family will heal from the loss of their daughter.

[SayWhatYo]

25. Uhhh, where do they get suicide from?

The article doesn't explain much about their reasoning behind such conclusions. Weird.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

31. You're Calling Them Keystone Cops Why? I Think That's Quite Unfair And Undeserving.

I saw absolutely nothing wrong in that article. They said they found some things consistent with an intent of suicide. We don't know what those things are and in fact have extremely little detail to go on to make ANY kind of assessment as to the way the investigation is going. To already have them classified as 'Keystone cops' is disgraceful in my opinion, as I'd consider any unwarranted character attack on another to be.

Sure, the circumstances seem odd for a suicide. But that is the ONLY conclusion of which there was enough detail so far to arrive at. So it's odd. So what? They haven't concluded it was a suicide yet and made it clear that they are still investigating other causes. But the fact remains that you and others have almost no details to go on so far in casting an opinion, and the ones we do have yield very little to assist us in making an informed judgment as to what did or didn't happen.

They said they found items in the car that are causing them to really lean towards a suicide, but are keeping open minds enough to not rule out anything else. I'd say that's fair and appropriate, and since you have no idea what they know or what they found, calling them keystone cops was just completely inappropriate.

[july302001]

33. I'd call it suspicious...

I have a Prius - trunk is pretty roomy, but not so roomy I would just fall in retrieving something from the back. Yeah, I guess I could fit in there but *not* comfortably. I'm short-normal and a female.

Engineering student? I think it was probably a murder unless she was very ashamed about failing a class/getting some bad grades and "engineered" her own death in secret.

But, I sort of doubt she was failing classes, given she had already gotten into grad school.

If this weren't tragic, it would be funny. Too bad it didn't happen in Chicago.