[2] On January 8, 2009, Ms. Yang, from Beijing, arrived to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg to study for a master's degree in accounting.

[1][3] Yang Xin went to social events with other international students and had settled in and started making friends.

[6] Following the mass shooting, the campus installed an alert system to notify students immediately rather than delay for two hours.

[8] On January 21, 2009, Wednesday morning, Zhu purchased an 8-inch butcher knife which he used to murder Yang along with a claw hammer and two other knives.

[5] On January 21, around 7:00 PM Wednesday night, Zhu attacked Yang with a knife and decapitated her while the two were having coffee at the Au Bon Pain restaurant at the Graduate Life Center.

[3] Irvine found a kitchen knife on the cafe table, and Zhu told her that he had a hammer and more knives in his backpack.

[3] Corey Cox, a cafe worker who witnessed the attack, said that Zhu lunged at Yang and cut her head off with a knife.

[8] Kim Beisecker, the director of the Cranwell International Center, said that Zhu had only recently met Yang.

On Wednesday night, when Zhu decapitated Yang, this system sent about 60,000 emergency notifications to 30,000 subscribers in half an hour.

[6] In April, 2010, Montgomery Circuit Judge Robert Turk sentenced Zhu Haiyang to life imprisonment without parole.

[5] Virginia Tech president Charles W. Steger wrote in a letter to the campus community that their hearts "go out to the victim [Yang Xin] and her family".