The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is seeking a person of interest in the death of Menghan Zhuang, a 23-year-old student at California Institute of the Arts.

Zhuang, who also goes by the name Emily King, was discovered unresponsive by her roommate at home in their Nandina Lane apartment inside the Vista Condominium Complex in Newhall on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 6:47 p.m. Deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station responded to the call at 6:47 p.m. to assist EMTs from the Los Angeles County Fire Department who were on the scene providing medical aid. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:03 p.m.

Lt. Michael Modica of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced the search for the suspect in Zhuang’s murder during a live press conference held 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 13

Zhuang suffered several injuries to the upper body said Modica, who declined to specify exactly what injuries she suffered, “to preserve the integrity of the case.”

A student from mainland China, Zhuang was a senior at CalArts studying art. She was in the United States on a student visa and had been living in the United States for three and a half years.

The LASD Homicide Bureau is seeking the public’s help in identifying a person of interest described as a male seen entering the victim’s apartment the night before and then seen on video exiting from her second-story bedroom window on the afternoon of the day she was discovered deceased.

Modica said the murder was “not a random act of violence, Menghan knew the person of interest as evidenced by her bringing the person into the apartment.”

A $20,000 reward by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for Zhuang’s murder is scheduled to be considered at the board’s Tuesday, Feb. 18 meeting. The reward, authored by Board Chair Kathryn Barger, will be in effect, when approved, as of Thursday, Feb. 13, said Modica.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.

If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call “Crime Stoppers” by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), use your smartphone by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile APP on Google Play or the Apple App Store, or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.