Murder suspect was Chinese victim's neighbor

A CANADIAN man charged with murdering a Chinese woman whose struggle with her attacker was witnessed by her helpless boyfriend in China was her neighbor in the same building, a police source said yesterday. The body of York University student Liu Qian, 23, of Beijing, was found a week ago in her Toronto apartment a few hours after her boyfriend saw the attack on webcam. Liu was found naked from the waist down but there were no obvious signs of sexual assault or trauma severe enough to kill her. An autopsy was inconclusive, and police say it may be weeks before the results of toxicology tests are known. Liu's distraught mother Zheng Yaru and father Liu Jianhui visited the coroner's office on Thursday after meeting police. Tears streamed down Zheng's face and she was assisted by others as she left the morgue. Liu was chatting with her boyfriend, Meng Xianchao, by webcam at about 1am on April 15 when a man knocked on the door, police said. Meng reported seeing a struggle between the two before Liu's webcam was shut off. Meng contacted other friends in Toronto who called police. "I think she trusted him," Meng told CTV News. "If it were someone she didn't trust she wouldn't have let him in. But the fact is she was chatting freely when she was sitting in front of the computer and the chat looked casual. It was like a common talk." Brian Dickson, 29, appeared in court on Thursday in a wrinkled white shirt and blue jeans as a charge of first-degree murder was read out. He did not enter a plea and his case was held over until Tuesday. Dickson was arrested the previous day. Toronto spokesman Tony Vella said Dickson was known to police but would not elaborate. Police searched Dickson's family residence in the east end of Toronto and confiscated a computer. Liu's father, Liu Jianhui, who arrived from China after being told of his daughter's death, thanked the authorities for their quick action. "I sincerely thank the people concerned with my daughter's case," he told reporters after the arrest. "Our daughter was st! udying v ery hard." One acquaintance described Dickson, a Toronto man, as an aspiring actor. Patricia Tomas said: "He doesn't seem like the type but that's what they always say. He's tall with boyish good looks. I don't know much about him except that he wanted to be an actor." Dickson studied global politics at York University. The university is one of Canada's largest with more than 53,000 undergraduate and graduate students. About 3,200 of its students come from more than 150 foreign countries.