Police need help: Do you know this woman?Identity » Ex-U. research professor fell out of shuttle bus and died, but leaves no trace.
By Sheena Mcfarland And Scott Sherman
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 11/24/2009 09:59:02 PM MST
In more than 30 years of police work, Scott Folsom has seen few people leave as faint a personal footprint on the world as Zhilong Xie.
After the 63-year-old former University of Utah research professor fell out of a moving shuttle bus Thursday and died, it fell to campus Police Chief Folsom's department to notify her next of kin.
Except they couldn't find anyone who really knew the woman.
Not family. Not friends. Not co-workers. Not neighbors. In fact, the only calls to Xie's cell phone came from telemarketers.
"Usually people leave a trail of their lives that is much more substantial than this woman did," Folsom said.
Even the Chinese Embassy has come up empty. So Tuesday, the police turned to the public, hoping with a little information they can find someone close to the woman who went by the name "Diane."
Xie is originally from Harban, China, and entered the United States around 1988. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2003 and did scholastic work at universities in Pennsylvania and Virginia before coming to work at the U., Folsom said.
She worked there part time in 1999 with the chemistry department and in 2000 in the engineering and geoscience department. She was an associate research professor in that department but never taught classes.
Folsom said police initially followed the usual trails to track down people who knew Xie: names in her cell phone, her employment history, information in
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her personal effects.
"This woman had precious little of that," he said.
Xie lived on the 1200 East block of Alameda Avenue (42 South) before moving to an apartment on the 100 South block of 1300 East in Salt Lake City, Folsom said. Her landlord didn't know her well, and nobody in the building knew her well, either. Police can't even find out if she was employed.
They combed through her home for photos, letters, mail, mailing lists. They went through all of her personal information at the university. No one is listed as next of kin.
"We got a hold of medical records -- they don't list anybody," Folsom said.
Police do not know why Xie was on campus Thursday night. She boarded the shuttle, which had more than 20 people, at the student union stop. As it turned left from North Campus Drive onto Mario Capecchi Drive about 8:20 p.m., she fell out.
"She was standing at the time of the turn, apparently lost her grip and fell against the doors," campus police Sgt. Arbon Nordgran said last week.
Xie may have hit her head on the ground. She was alive but unconscious when Salt Lake City Fire Department paramedics arrived. She died later at University Hospital.
Folsom said police will continue to search for someone who may have known her, even if it means turning over her cell phone for forensic work.
The work will go on, he said, because, "I think we have a duty to the family, to anybody who knows this woman to figure out what was going on in her life."
[email protected]Call U. of U. police
Anyone with information about Zhilong "Diane" Xie is asked to call University of Utah police at 801-585-2677.
http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_13858658
