July 23, 2004
SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS

She knew him, her parents knew him and they all felt comfortable around him. So shock and horror rocked Cecilia Zhang’s parents Wednesday, as they learned 21-year-old Min Chen is a suspect in their little girl’s abduction and murder.

A day after the news hit the media, speculation about just how well the accused and the victim knew each other began to fly, along with theories about a possible motive in the case.

Chen was friends with a woman who had lived at the Zhang home in North York and had visited on at least four different occasions. Now there are reports that the main suspect may even have taken Cecilia fishing in the same area of the Credit River, where her remains were found in March, months after she was abducted from her home in October.

And while police won't confirm it, there are indications the physical evidence found at that scene ties directly to Chen.

Peel Regional Police Chief Noel Catney said Chen was an enthusiastic fisherman who was “intimately familiar” with the spot where Cecilia was eventually found. And the child liked to fish, too. Now investigators are trying to find out if the Zhangs ever went to that area with him.

The 21-year-old visa student from China is charged with first degree murder and is being held at the Maplehurst Detention Facility until he makes another court appearance in mid-August.

A female companion was also detained, but no charges were laid against her and she's since been released.

Now the question the public wants answered is: Why? There’s been no official word on a motive, but detectives have been following a theory that it was a case of a ransom attempt that went tragically awry.

Chen had reportedly been gambling away the money his parents back in Shanghai had been sending him for tuition, and needed a new source of funds.

There are also inferences that the 21-year-old knew two people involved in the abduction and murder of a Toronto private school owner back in May 2002, and may have hoped to beat their fate.

That pair gambled away most of their school money, but were caught after the crime. Both are serving 15 year jail terms.

Detectives won't say if any of those circumstances led to the events that ensnared the Zhang family, but one thing is apparent. Whoever killed the child and whatever the original intent may have been, it went terribly, tragically wrong.
July 23, 2004
http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Story/20040723-005/page.asp

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Was the abduction an intended kidnap for ransom gone uglier ? I recall there was a strange phone call to the Zhang parents...