The B.C. man accused of killing his estranged wife and stuffing her body in a suitcase made a brief appearance in court Monday.
Software designer Zhongming (James) Mou, 35, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Yating (Lancy) Hu.
The mother-of-two's body was discovered in a suitcase in the Fraser River near Steveston on Aug. 27, six weeks after she disappeared.
Hu was last seen leaving her Coquitlam home on July 16, but Mou didn't report her missing for two days. He originally said he'd last seen her in Burnaby a day earlier, but later changed his story to police.
Friends of the dead woman outside Port Coquitlam provincial court Monday said they were relieved to have some closure and see Mou face justice.
"We are very glad," said one woman, who gave her name as Ruth. "We wanted to know where she is and what happened to her."
Hu's body was found just three days after her parents made a tearful public plea for information about the missing woman. Her father, a police officer in China, told reporters that he feared she had been killed because she would never leave her two young children.
Mou's next court appearance is scheduled for next week.
