Virginia Tech Police say a female graduate student from China who was killed on campus was decapitated with a kitchen knife.
Police on Thursday identified the victim of the Wednesday night slaying as 22-year-old Xin (zhin) Yang, who had arrived on the Blacksburg campus from Beijing on Jan. 8 to study accounting.
Police Chief Wendell Flinchum says the victim and her accused attacker, 25-year-old Haiyang Zhu (hy-yuhng-joo), knew each other but no motive has been established. He is in custody.
It was the first killing on the school’s campus since a gunman killed 32 people before turning the gun on himself in April 2007.