B.C. model found dead in Shanghai
Aspiring Canadian model Diana Gabrielle O’Brien’s body was found stabbed and fully clothed, according to a CBC report quoting her longtime boyfriend.
Joel Berry, 32, told CBC he had obtained the information second-hand from a source that wasn’t disclosed.
On Sunday, O’Brien’s roommate Charlotte Wood found her body in the stairwell of the apartment picked out for the two B.C. models by the Jh Model Agency.
It was previously reported that the apartment was in a safe neighbourhood in Shanghai, but Agence France Presse reported the apartment was near one of Shanghai’s red light districts.
O’Brien’s boyfriend, Berry, said Tuesday Chinese authorities reported the apartment was ransacked.
“Everything had been stolen from the apartment - all their cameras and laptops,” said Berry, 32, in an interview with Canwest News Service.
“They may have some surveillance videos of the culprit. Maybe somebody had seen her and followed her home. I don’t know if she answered the door to someone. I don’t know those details.”
All of the information about O’Brien’s death has come from her father, Michael. However, reached Tuesday at his Regina home, the grieving father said he didn’t want to discuss the case with reporters.
He said he learned of his daughter’s death early Monday, and the Foreign Affairs office in Ottawa has been keeping him up to date on the investigation.
“I have all the information available up to this point,” said the grieving father.
Michael said he’s waiting to learn more about the death of his daughter before he heads to the B.C. coast, where she was raised, to grieve with O’Brien’s friends and family.
“She was a beautiful, innocent and loving girl, and she was just pursuing her dreams and her career. She wasn’t involved in anything that was untoward at all,” said Michael.
He said he wasn’t sure when his daughter’s body would be returned to Canada. “Sooner, I hope, than later, but there isn’t really any indication at this point when we’ll have Diana back.”
O’Brien’s death was a tragic turn to a life that seemed on a path to success. The 22 year-old model thought she was on the verge of making it big. Fresh from a coveted contract to model in Italy - something that doesn’t happen every day for a woman from tiny Saltspring Island in B.C. - O’Brien decided to try advancing her career another step by working in Shanghai.
“She had such a great time in Milan that she had the confidence and courage to go to Shanghai,” said Zoltan Kodaly, one of O’Brien’s best friends. “If Milan didn’t go so well, it’s tough to say whether she would’ve gone through with it.”
But working in China wasn’t the star-studded dream O’Brien thought it would be. And only about two weeks into her three-month contract with Jh Model Agency, O’Brien was found dead, possibly the victim of a botched break-and-enter.
Days before her suspected murder, O’Brien complained to her friends about the type of assignments she was getting in Shanghai. Many models here are hired for club and restaurant openings or product launches, where their job is to decorate the scene.
It’s not unusual for them to be sent to dancing jobs as well - the type of work O’Brien was doing for the Chinese agency, friends said. She was told to dance in long, flowing robes, said friend Melanie Callas.
“It wasn’t provocative. She could dance however she wanted, but it was sort of odd,” said Callas.
O’Brien was getting homesick, and had decided to return to Canada on July 24 or 25. She wanted to be back in Saltspring Island at the home she shared with her boyfriend.
The day before her death, O’Brien was assigned to work in Kunming, Yunnan, a city near the Chinese border with Vietnam. She was to stay over the weekend. She left her apartment Saturday, but didn’t make it out of Shanghai.
One of O’Brien’s last acts was to update her Facebook page: “Diana is missing her other half,” she wrote.
The mystery surrounding her death continues to grow.
Laura and Barbara Coultish from the Barbara Coultish Agency, which represented O’Brien, said they’ve had a working relationship with Jh Model.
“Our agency has maintained an excellent rapport with the owner and bookers at Jh Model,” said a statement from the agency. “Jh Model has been professional to work with and have secured legitimate modelling assignments for our models including Chinese Vogue, an advertisement for Maybelline, fashion shows and promotional work.
Jh Model escorts their models to each casting and assignment they are booked for. However, models are not accompanied on their personal free time.
“We have not been told all of the details of this tragedy however we do know that she was not working at the time,” said the statement. “Details of the incident must be issued by her family as they are the ones notified by the authorities.”
On Tuesday, the website of the Jh Model Agency was not accessible. Earlier, however, the site featured pictures of dozens of Chinese and international models, calling the company one of China’s top agencies.
The main page featured a model’s photo and the name of Canadian supermodel Daria Werbowy. However, an unidentified spokeswoman for New York-based IMG, the agency that represents Werbowy, said she had “never worked for a Shanghai agency” and the picture was likely used without permission.
There was no answer Tuesday at either of the phone numbers listed for the Chinese agency, and a visit to the rundown building where the modelling agency was supposed to be located proved puzzling. A young man who answered the door said he was a wedding photographer who had moved in a month ago, adding he knew nothing about a modelling agency.
But his neighbours in the down-market building told a different story. They said four people worked out of the office and that it was, in fact, a modelling agency. One neighbour said she rode in the elevator just last week with two Western models.
A second address listed for the modelling agency, an office at another rundown apartment complex, was closed and nobody answered the bell.
The news shocked the close-knit community of Saltspring.
“Fifty people stopped by the house yesterday. It was a tough day,” Berry said. “We’re all in a state of shock. She was a special girl to a lot of people’s hearts over here.”
Friends on Saltspring say the uncertainty over what happened to O’Brien makes her death particularly difficult.
“I want answers, definitely,” said Jada-lee Watson, who became friends with O’Brien through work done at her island clothing company. “When anything happens in a small community, it touches everyone in a different way. It’s a healing process that’s going to take a long time.”
Watson said O’Brien was “radiant” and easy to connect with. “She just touched people. It was the twinkle in her eye, and she was a gentle soul.”
Clarissa Connell, director of the Fulcher agency in Toronto, said Asia is considered a “developmental market,” where young models can go to launch their careers.
“Asia is a good starting ground to build their (portfolio) books,” she said. “There is lots of work, a lot of it legitimate promotional work like in clubs, in malls or hostess jobs.”
Her 48-year-old agency represents 250 models, who are regularly sent overseas to Japan, Australia, Spain and Germany. Only a handful have had problems.
Connell said she has not sent any to China because of the country’s “unstable politics.”
“The models are really young, and sometimes they sneak out at night, go out. But as an agency, you have to know what kind of models you are dealing with,” she said.
“There’s only a certain amount of control that we can have. Any models who travel are told to use common sense.”
She said her agency makes models research laws and customs of the country to which they are travelling.
Most Canadian model agencies also remain in close contact with the international agencies to which they send their models, to help ensure the model’s safety in a foreign country, she added.
Other modelling agencies dismissed concerns about dangerous conditions in Shanghai.
“It’s just another Asian market,” said Charles Stuart, who runs Faces West modelling agency and hosts the annual International Model & Talent Convention in Vancouver.
“There’s no more pitfalls than in any other market. The models are usually chaperoned and have drivers driving them around, although they have their own time in their evenings. You can’t have anyone watching them 24 hours a day.”
The suspicious death of a foreigner is a rare happening in China.
News of O’Brien’s death would be particularly unwelcome to authorities at this time, less than a month before the Olympics are set to open. China is expecting to welcome up to 500,000 visitors from around the world and the slightest hint they might not be safe could have an impact. Already, travel experts have speculated that the earthquake and the riots in Tibet last March might affect the number of Olympic visitors.
But not a word about O’Brien has filtered into the official Chinese media.
If it were revealed, it would be big news, particularly in Shanghai.
Some Mandarin-language website have noted the story, but they picked up the reports from Canadian newspapers and translated them.
source: canada.com
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