Double murderer found dead in cell
Michigan City, September 15 - Authorities are investigating the hanging death of a former Purdue University student sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing two women in a campus
apartment.
A guard found Zhan Yin, 30, hanging dead in his cell at the Indiana State Prison during a bed check about 3 a.m. Sunday. Prison officials say an initial investigation indicates that the hanging occurred at a time when the inmates would have been locked in their cells for the night in the prison about 25 miles east of Gary.
Yin, a former biology doctoral student from China, pleaded guilty but mentally ill two years ago to two counts of murder, burglary and attempted arson in the deaths of two sisters originally from South Korea. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Yin told authorities he went to Yeunkyung Woo's apartment at Purdue Village on Aug. 2, intending to kill her because he believed the 31-year-old biology student meant him harm.
When her sister, 29-year-old Hyokyung, of Chicago, answered the door, he hit her in the head with a hammer and stabbed her to death. He waited inside for Yeunkyung to come home and then killed
her with the hammer. The women's bodies were discovered the next day.
His attorney, Steve Meyer of Lafayette, said that Yin was "truly remorseful for his actions."
Two psychiatrists who examined Yin testified at his trial that Yin, who had a family history of mental illness, had become deeply depressed and then delusional in the months leading up to the
murders.
"Anytime that a person commits this type of act, this type of crime, he obviously is a very confused individual. Just watching him through the hearing, the sentencing , he was a very disturbed young man," Steve Dietrich, deputy chief of the Purdue Police Department, said Tuesday.
Prison officials, state police and the LaPorte County Coroner are investigating the death.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
