A woman who was killed after falling from a U shuttle Thursday has been identified as Zhilong Xie, 63, a former U professor.
Xie was employed at the U in 2000 as a research professor within the College of Mining and Earth Science for about a year after working for a short time as a research associate in the chemistry department.
Scott Folsom, chief of the U Police Department, announced Xie’s identity after searching during the weekend for a relative that could be contacted, but to no avail.
“We are attempting to notify her next of kin of her demise, but we cannot find her next of kin,” Folsom said. “We’ve talked to friends and neighbors, but all of those people report distant relationships. Our detectives are in contact with the Chinese embassy.”
Police are having difficulty piecing Xie’s life together and figuring out who to contact concerning her death. They can’t find any proof of employment since 2000 and no information of her whereabouts since 2003, when Xie became a U.S. citizen, but that’s the last record police have been able to find about her, Folsom said. Police found a contact book inside her apartment, but nobody they called was close to Xie.
“She led a very reclusive lifestyle,” Folsom said. “Usually people leave a trail of their life, but we haven’t found anything.”
U Police want anyone with information about her family to call 801-585-2677.
