THE suspected killer of overseas student Zhang Hongjie in Australia has been arrested and has confessed to his crime, the Shanghai Morning Post reported.

　　The body of Zhang Hongjie, a young woman from Shanghai, was found seven months after she was killed in Australia. The badly decomposed body of the victim was found by Australian police in a building called Miramar in Canberra on January 12.

　　The 24-year-old suspect, Zhang Long, surrendered to the police in Dalian of Liaoning Province on March 3 and confessed to killing the woman on June 9, 2004.

　　Zhang's parents spoke to the Shanghai Morning Post after days of silence. They said during the past nine months, they had received letters continually from their "daughter" and this was why they hadn't reported her disappearance to the police.

　　"On February 15 this year, we received an e-mail saying she would return home on March 23," Zhang's father said. "We were so happy to wait for her. But actually we were being tricked."

　　"The tone in the e-mail was totally indistinguishable from my sister's," said the victim's cousin and also good friend. "I didn't suspect for a moment that someone else was imitating her and writing the e-mails."

　　The parents said the suspect was Zhang's boyfriend though their daughter never mentioned him. They still don't know why he killed their daughter.

　　On March 10, the family received a secret call from an acquaintance. The caller told Zhang's father that someone wanted to come to Shanghai and talk about their daughter's death, suggesting the dispute be concluded through the payment of compensation without involving the law.

　　Zhang's father refused the idea. "I just want to know the real reason for my daughter's death!" he said.

　　Some classmates of the victim told the parents that the suspect's family was unusual and hard to deal with.

　　The family members of the suspect said they did want to meet the victim's parents, but the aim is not to pay money to conclude the case, but to express their apology.

　　(Star News)