An Arizona State University student is murdered in her off-campus apartment In the summer of 1997, Fiona Yu, a 21-year-old business senior at Arizona State University, was diligently attending summer classes, working part-time on campus, and looking forward to being the first in her family to graduate from college. Described by those who knew her as hardworking, friendly, and trusting, she had big dreams for her future. However, on the afternoon of August 4th, those dreams were tragically cut short in a brutal act of violence that remains a haunting mystery.
That day, Fiona was last seen by a neighbor riding her bicycle near her off-campus apartment in Tempe, Arizona, between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m. It is believed she arrived home around 5:00 p.m. In a terrifying turn of events, sometime between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m., an unknown assailant sexually assaulted and strangled her inside her second-floor apartment. There were no signs of forced entry, leading investigators to believe that her attacker may have been someone she knew, possibly someone who was already inside her apartment, waiting for her.
Her roommate, Kazu Ito, returned to their shared apartment at approximately 5:15 p.m. and initially remained on the first floor. An unsettling feeling prompted her to go upstairs around 6:00 p.m., where she made a horrifying discovery. She found Fiona partially clothed and barely alive in the hallway. In a frantic 911 call, Ito described the scene, telling the dispatcher her roommate was not waking up and that her mouth was blue. Emergency services rushed Fiona to a local hospital, but she succumbed to her injuries shortly after arrival. An autopsy later confirmed the cause of death as strangulation.
In the immediate aftermath of the murder, investigators considered several possibilities, including a string of other sexual assaults that had occurred on and around the ASU campus. Two teenagers were arrested in connection with attacks on other female students, but their DNA did not match the sample found at the scene of Fiona's murder. Over the years, the case grew cold, though not forgotten. Tempe Police detectives have revisited the case multiple times, including in 2012 and again in 2017. Despite having a good DNA sample from the crime scene, no match has ever been found in the national criminal database. In 2017, investigators utilized advanced DNA technology to create a composite image of the potential suspect, hoping to generate new leads. As of today, more than two decades later, no arrests have been made, and the identity of Fiona Yu's killer remains unknown.
