In a black backpack found dumped in a rubbish bin in Melbourne’s south-east, homicide squad detectives found a set of house keys.
They would help unlock not only a Docklands apartment, but the killing of two Melbourne women hours apart on opposite sides of the CBD.
Xiaozheng Lin (left) arrives at the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday.Credit: AAPIMAGE
On Monday, 24-year-old plasterer Xiaozheng Lin pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter over the December 2022 deaths of sex workers Yuqi Luo, 31, and Hyun Sook Jeon, 51.
Both were killed in their own homes. Luo was found naked and fatally strangled. Jeon’s remains were so badly decomposed, her cause of death was unable to be determined.
The Supreme Court heard police began investigating the death of Luo after her agency found her lifeless body inside her La Trobe Street apartment. The case then unwittingly led police to Jeon’s body, streets away in Docklands.
Lin, who was in financial trouble due to a gambling habit, told another man he planned to rob sex workers for money. He went on to kill and steal from the women, leaving their homes with a laundry basket and a bag filled with valuable possessions, including designer handbags and $7000 in cash.
Huntingdale man Xiaozheng Lin killed Yuqi Luo on December 27 and Hyun Sook Jeon hours later, the court heard.
But he later dumped most of the items, including a set of Mercedes-Benz keys in a bin outside his house.
It was these keys, the court heard on Monday, that led police to a second body.
“The women were not known to each other,” Crown prosecutor Kristie Churchill said.
In a victim impact statement read out by Churchill, Luo’s father, Luo Bo, wrote of the pain of losing his daughter on the other side of the world from where their family lived in a remote mountainous village in China.
“Having to see my daughter leave this world before us is a huge blow to my heart. Right in the prime of her life. A young life cut short in an extremely brutal way by a criminal,” he wrote.
The court heard that on December 26, 2022, Lin messaged a friend to drive him to a brothel in Oakleigh South. He later called a booking agent via an internet ad to book an appointment with a sex worker.
He was told to drive to several locations before arriving at Luo’s La Trobe Street apartment, already angry at changing addresses.
While in the car, he told his friend he had recently lost money at the TAB and was intending to rob a sex worker.
Once he arrived, about 12am, his friend parked nearby and waited for Lin to return. Once inside, Churchill said Lin had showered and the pair engaged in sex but when he asked for oral sex, he became angry when he was told it would cost more.
Lin told police the pair had argued before he grabbed her head and pressed it into the bed as the 31-year-old attempted to fight back.
He claimed he left her on the floor gasping for air before he showered again, filled a laundry basket with money and electronics and left.
The following day, a fellow employee found Luo’s body. Lin’s brown wristwatch was nearby.
The court heard Lin later attended Jeon’s Docklands apartment. Exactly what occurred inside is unclear, but Lin left with a laptop, bank cards and keys.
During his police interview, Lin told officers he had been angry that Luo wanted him to pay $100 more for oral sex and that he “controlled her with my hands”.
“I was angry. The way she spoke made me feel that I was humiliated,” he said.
“She fought back.”
Following his arrest, police discovered items belonging to Jeon in a bin at his address, including passports and a condom wrapper, before her body was discovered on December 29, 2022.
Her body was found lying face down on her bed with towels wrapped around her head. Lin’s fingerprints were found nearby.
Lin was initially charged with two counts of murder and was due to face a trial in August. However, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in July, avoiding a lengthy trial.
A suppression order had also largely prevented reporting on the two cases until now.
Defence barrister Paul Smallwood said his client suffered a basketball injury as a child, which left him with a limp. Because of this, he said, Lin had never had a girlfriend and hired sex workers.
Smallwood said Lin had no prior offences or allegations of violence against women with no other comparable cases appearing to ever have occurred in Victoria.
“In the space of 24 hours, he killed two women,” Smallwood said.
Lin will be sentenced at a later date.
Authorities declined to release any photos of the two victims.
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