She was born on March 30, 1994, to her parents, Raymond Zhang and Sherry Xu, who came from Jiangsu and arrived in Canada in 1998.

According to an agreed statement of facts read out in a Brampton, Ontario courthouse, Chen was failing in his college studies and feared deportation back to his native China.

Being a broke visa student, he desperately needed $25,000 to enter into a marriage of convenience as a means of becoming a permanent resident in Canada.

The highly decomposed remains of Cecilia Zhang were subsequently found by a hiker in a wooded area of Mississauga by the Credit River at Eglinton Avenue on Saturday, March 27, 2004.

[1] Peel Regional Police had received a complaint about potential illegal fishing in the area on Sept. 18, 2003[6] near where the body was discovered.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment; under the faint hope clause then in effect, he was given the right to apply for parole after 15 years.

Trial and punishment in the other country is seen as a mitigating factor, but does not preclude further imprisonment or execution in the People's Republic of China.