Chinese PhD student and infant daughter killed in Germany, Slovak husband arrested

A 31-year-old Chinese PhD student and her two-month-old daughter were found dead in their Dusseldorf apartment in late November, with her Slovak husband arrested as the suspect.

German police discovered the bodies on November 29 in the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia state. They arrested a 43-year-old man, the woman's husband, who was found with severe injuries, allegedly self-inflicted after the attack. The suspect admitted to killing his wife and child. An axe and knives were found at the scene.

The student, identified only as Lili, was a publicly funded doctoral candidate who had been studying in Germany since 2020. A university roommate described her as gentle, reserved, hardworking and a frequent scholarship recipient during her earlier studies in China.

The roommate said Lili met her future husband when he was an exchange student in China, but they only began a relationship after she moved to Germany. The couple married in August last year and held their wedding in China. Lili came from a coastal province in northern China and had completed her undergraduate and master's degrees domestically before her doctoral studies.

The case has sparked online mourning in China, with netizens launching fundraising efforts to help Lili's father travel to Germany.