College Student Killed By Boyfriend: “I wanted to relieve her suffering”

A 19-year-old college student was killed via a lethal drug injection Friday in an Utah hotel by her boyfriend who claimed he killed her to “relieve her from suffering,” according to reports and police. 

The victim, an unidentified international student from China studying at the University of Utah, was found dead Friday morning by Salt Lake police at the Quality Inn, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. 

Haoyu Wang — the 26-year-old alleged killer who the Salt Lake City Police Department says is in their custody, is an international student from China enrolled at the same university, according to police and the college. 

The police department in a press release described the slay as a “domestic violence-related homicide.”  ABC4 identified Wang as the victim’s boyfriend. 

The school and police are withholding the victim’s identity until her family is notified. 

Citing a statement of probable cause, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Wang sent an email to an employee at his university that revealed he had administered the victim with drugs to “relieve her from suffering.”

ABC4 reported the drug used was heroin. 

According to the probable cause statement, Wang told police that he and the 19-year-old entered a suicide pact, and that he had ordered drugs via the “dark net,” the Tribune reported. 

Wang claimed to Salt Lake City Police Department Homicide Squad detectives that he killed the 19-year-old and afterwards attempted to kill himself by injecting himself with the drugs, according to the police department’s press release. 

Officers had been dispatched to the hotel after the University of Utah told police that the man had allegedly threatened the woman, the Tribune reported. Wang had in January been charged with one count of assault for domestic violence, according to court records viewed by the Tribune. 

In a letter to students and faculty, University of Utah Chief Safety Officer Keith Squires and Vice President for Student Affairs Lori McDonal addressed the “devastating” death of a student. 

“The death of any young person embarking on adult life is devastating,” they wrote. “On behalf of the university, we extend our heartfelt grief and sympathy to the family, friends and classmates of the victim during this incredibly difficult time.”