University of Iowa student lists same address as missing ISU student

IOWA CITY — Social media posts and court records shed light into the investigation of a missing Iowa State University student whose body police found in the trunk of a car in Iowa City on Friday.

Tong Shao, a 20-year-old ISU junior from China, on Aug. 25 publicly posted on Facebook a picture of herself in a shirt that read, 'I am Tong, nice to meet you.' Shao thanked her roommate for the 'cute T-shirt' in the post, which had one comment from a man named Xiangnan Li.

'Tired of all that beauty Tong Tong,' Li wrote in Mandarin, which a Facebook translation tool converted to English.

Investigators on Monday confirmed the body they discovered last week in Iowa City belonged to Shao, and they officially named Li as a person of interest in the case.

Li, who is listed as a University of Iowa student in the Henry B. Tippie College of Business, in February gave police a home address in Ames after he was pulled over in Coralville for failure to obey a traffic control device, according to court records. The Ames address he gave — 1300 Coconino Road 125 — is the same address Shao lists in the Iowa State student directory.

Li, a Chinese national, first enrolled as a UI student in fall 2013 and is currently listed as a fourth-year finance major, according to UI spokesman Tom Moore. According to Li's Facebook page, he last studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and he was listed on the dean's list there in Spring 2013.

Li and Shao became friends on Facebook in 2012.

Investigators said they found Shao's body Friday in the trunk of a beige 1997 Toyota Camry at Dolphin Lake Point Enclave in Iowa City — near where they say Li was living at the time. They've identified Li as a person of interest in the case but said he's back in China and finding him is a challenge.

Shao first was reported missing Sept. 18 by friends at Iowa State, and Ames police said those friends last heard from Shao on Sept. 8 when she told them via text message that she was in Iowa City to visit a friend and was then heading north to Minnesota.

After learning of her disappearance, Ames police contacted Iowa City investigators to let them know that Shao's last known whereabouts were in their jurisdiction. Iowa City police tracked down her contacts in the area, and that led them to Dolphin Lake Point, where the car and the body were found.

Some reports of Shao's disappearance have said she was visiting a boyfriend in Iowa City.

Li's criminal record in Iowa includes only driving offenses — including the February tickets in Coralville for failure to obey a traffic control device and driving while suspended. He also received speeding tickets in Story County in June and August of 2013, according to court records.

Shao was studying chemical engineering at Iowa State, and ISU's 'Wang Lab' in March posted on its website that Shao had joined its research and that she would continue as a summer intern.

Some news outlets and reporters in China have been following the case and linked Li with the missing Shao early in the day Monday.