Police Believe They Have Found Body of Missing King’s PhD Student

In a statement released at noon on 28 February, officers investigating an address in Westminster at 3:00 am on the 28th February have found a deceased woman who they believe to be Yan Sihong, a missing King’s College London PhD student. Formal identification has not yet been confirmed.

According to the police, the death is not being considered suspicious, and next of kin have been informed. 

Yan, a 35-year-old PhD student at King’s College London, had been missing for 14 days.  

Yan was last seen around noon on February 14. Friends became concerned when she did not show up to a Lunar New Year event on 16th February, and then did not respond to their messages. After Yan failed to call her parents in a usual weekly video chat, her parents contacted the Chinese Embassy, who notified the police and filed a missing persons report.

Yan originally hailed from Shenyang in Liaoning Province, and had been studying at King’s since September 2016.

In response to the police report, Professor Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London and Yan’s personal tutor, stated ‘We are very saddened and shocked to hear about the death of Sihong. She was an extremely hard-working, intelligent student and an active member of the PhD community here where she was studying Political Economy. We have been in touch with her family and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time. The university is offering support to any of her friends and fellow students affected by this tragedy.’