Police have appealed for students from Macquarie University who studied with a member of the slain Lin family to come forward.Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford said that Yun Bin "Irene" Yin, 39, had taken a business course at Macquarie University during the past year. Yin was the sister of Yun Li "Lillie" Lin who, along with husband Min Lin and their two sons Henry and Terry, was murdered while she slept in a North Epping home last week.
Fear grips North Epping communitySuperintedent Beresford said detectives wanted to talk to anyone who knew Yin through her studies at Macquarie.Superintendent Beresford said police did not believe the deaths were related to the robbery of the Lins' Epping newsagency a month ago, during which Lillie Lin was held up at knifepoint. Police still believe the family might have known their attackers but were not ruling out other possibilities, he said. At a public meeting last night, police asked anyone who had ever come into contact with the Lin family to go to the police. "It's really important we build a really accurate victim profile," Superintendent Beresford today told 2UE radio. "Information about the family is difficult to get ... we have to rely on, obviously, the remaining relatives but also anyone associated with the family."Detectives yesterday spoke "at length" with Brenda Lin, the 15-year-old daughter who was on a school trip overseas when her family was killed. "She's a very stoic young girl," Superintendent Beresford said. "We spoke to her at length yesterday, we'll continue that today ... but the poor young girl's devastated." More than 200 residents, including the federal MP Maxine McKew, attended last night's meeting, at which they discussed how to deal with the crime and speak of it to their children.Held at All Saints Anglican church - one street away from where the Lins lived - many parents or grandparents arrived, some with children who were schoolmates of Henry and Terry, and whose primary school was in the same street where the Lin family lived. The meeting lasted about an hour and a half.Jennifer Lugsdin, mother of a three-year-old and a five-year-old, said parents were told the best way to help their children was to lead by example."They said that the healing process starts now and the best way to help each other is not by talking about the case, and speculating . . . but rather moving forward and talking about our love for the family and how special they were to us . . . children learn a lot from what they see and hear you doing."Ms Lugsdin said they were told the only information children under five should be given is that the family had died - any more was unnecessary. Parents were also told about signs to watch for in teens."One lady said her 15-year-old [daughter] was sleeping with a hammer under her pillow and at that point everyone just burst into tears," Ms Lugsdin said. "Another man said his 16-year-old son was sleeping with the light on. A lot of people were feeling really moved by how much it's going to affect that age group, particularly next week when they go back to school."Alex, a local man with an adult son, and a regular customer at the Lins' newsagency, said he had friends who had moved to the area because it was such a friendly neighbourhood."We've got friends who are from other countries who have chosen to come and live here because of the type of community it is, and it hits them pretty hard."Details from autopsies about whether the victims were physically or chemically restrained are not expected until Friday. Police have described the attack as "targeted" and said there were no signs of a forced entry or anything having been stolen. smh.com.au
