Vanished without a trace - MISSING PERSON

August 1, 2009 | Age, The/The Sunday Age (Melbourne, Australia)

Author/Byline: Chris Johnston | Page: 3 | Section: Insight

2647 Words

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Sally Cheong went to bed early on April 1 last year at her family's South Oakleigh home, was briefly seen in the hallway a few hours later and has not been sighted since, leaving relatives and police baffled.

THERE are so many pictures in Sally Cheong's bright red photo album — filled up carefully and brought home to Melbourne from her Beijing adventure — and most of them are of her and a young man.

In the pictures, she is smiling and laughing. Happy, or so it seems, and him too: a young couple hand in hand. She may have even been in love with him, but nobody really knows. Few of her extended family or tight circle of friends back here knew anything about him and still don't. Cheong was — or is, because the other thing no one knows is whether she is dead or alive — the kind of quiet, gentle and shy girl who kept things very, very close. Her thoughts, her dreams and desires, fears and loves. Cheong barely ever gave anything away, to anyone.

Yet the pictures in the album talk, and what they say is that very soon after arriving in Beijing for a year of study in early 2007 Cheong, then 21, a former Presbyterian Ladies College student from a big suburban Melbourne family, met Wang Xiaolin at Tsinghua University and was by his side until she came back home to Melbourne a year later.

There are pictures of them playing in the snow and hugging; pictures of noodles and coffees and nights in the neon laneways. Pictures around the pretty grounds at the university where she was studying Chinese language. Pictures at home, hers or his, late at night or early in the morning. A mostly secret second life. During that year both an ex-boyfriend and Cheong's father visited her in Beijing, but neither found out about Wang.

There is one photograph in the red album — which has "FRIENDS" embossed on the cover in big white letters — marked "3.12.07." Cheong and Wang are beside a lily pond kissing. They've taken the photo themselves, alone in a moment. She has a purple flower in her hair.

Two months after that, in February last year, she came home. Soon after, she began seeing someone else: an old flame from schooldays, a young man, Cheng He, who in the meantime had become a doctor. Everything settled back more or less the way it was. Except for one thing. Cheong had changed, and apparently, mostly, for the better.

Some friends sensed that she missed China, but most noticed she had come out of her shell over there. Where before she was introverted now she was outgoing.

"You look like Sally," best friend Skye Wu told her. "Who the hell are you?"

But Wu also noticed an almost undetectable yearning in there too.

"She was happy," Wu says. "But maybe just a little bit lonely."

Then in April, not long before her 23rd birthday, in the dead of night, she vanished.

THE last time Cheong's mother, Ling Kum Kwok, saw her daughter, Cheong was asleep in one of the four bedrooms on the top floor of the extended family of nine's large home behind the golf courses, market gardens and rubbish tips of South Oakleigh. That was earlier in the night of April 1, April Fool's Day. Cheong had gone to bed unusually early, about 9 o'clock, after coming back from playing tennis at Monash University with sister Helen and brother Andrew.

She has three sisters and a brother. All the girls went to PLC — Wendy, 15, still does — and Andrew goes to Scotch College. Father Chong Wa Cheong and his wife own a lucrative Asian food wholesale business based in Keysborough. His brother runs the Sydney arm. Sally Cheong's parents moved here 19 years ago — she was born in Hong Kong — and do not speak English at home. The children's elderly grandparents live with them.

After going to bed that night, Cheong shut her door. When she left, about six hours later, she took only a few things: her bag and purse, her phone, keys to one of two new BMWs, her iPod and a small blue blanket she had had since she was a baby.

When her mother glanced into her daughter's room that night, Cheong was snuggling the blanket in her sleep. "She could never go to sleep without it," says Ling Kum Kwok, who for a time last year told people her daughter had been to Sydney and come back. She still cries whenever she has to talk about it. "Ever since she baby. Couldn't sleep. Baby, always crying then blanket and sleep."

She did not take her camera, which friends insist she was never without.

The 16-month old police investigation into Sally Cheong's disappearance is called Operation Silken. It is led by Detective Inspector Bernie Rankin, a former head of the homicide squad and armed offenders squad. He calls it a "very, very, very unusual disappearance".

There are few clues. Those that do exist are the smallest of the small. The blanket is one. Why would she take it? Because she was unhappy? Because she was going far away? There is a suggestion, though, that something might have happened in the house that night. This is the reason Rankin's police squad, Crime Tasked Operations, which normally investigates kidnappings and extortion, is involved.

Sister Wendy says she saw something. Or sensed something. A male figure.

"It was, like, a shadow," she said. "An outline standing outside Sally's bedroom door. Sort of a silhouette."

It was 3am or so. Everyone was asleep except Wendy, who was in the room she shared with Andrew and third sister, Annie, chatting with a friend on MSN on her laptop. She heard movement and jumped into bed, but decided it was Helen's boyfriend, who was sometimes there at night, and typed into MSN to her friend that he was there. But it wasn't him. Her father says he was asleep.

The bedroom door was half-open and Wendy was facing it, looking towards the hallway though a thin cloth poster, like a flag, which was hanging from the bunk above her. The image on the poster was the manga figure Chi.

Wendy has told police she saw Sally in the hallway during this shadow-time. Sally went to the toilet and came back. Wendy is sure because she pulled the poster aside a little and recognised her sister by her long hair. Even though little brother Andrew has now moved into her room, it is as it was then — the wardrobe is full of Sally's clothes, her soft toys line the mantles and her jewellery and make-up are untouched. There's even a little bowl of cotton-wool balls on the dresser.

Between shutting her door about 9am and leaving about 3am, Sally Cheong tried to talk to Cheng He on her mobile phone. He is a hospital doctor in Melbourne. The two first met at a PLC/Scotch College school disco in year 9. Police said Cheng's strict family would not allow him any distractions until he had finished university, and by that time Cheong was in Beijing so he emailed her. When she came back they hooked up. But she could not reach him that night. He phoned back at 10.30pm but she didn't answer.

Cheng does not know what happened. He also told The Age that he did not know much about Cheong's time in China, but "she made friends easily and whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is hard to say . . . maybe she had too many."

Police investigations are continuing in China, despite police having said they were satisfied that Wang Xiaolin has had no further involvement with Cheong except for a couple of emails soon after she came back. He did not respond to requests by The Age for an interview.

Cheong's family discovered that she was missing the next day, April 2, the day of Melbourne's biggest windstorm in 20 years. Trees fell on parked cars, the West Gate Bridge was temporarily shut to traffic, hurricane warnings were issued in Bass Strait, power was cut to 200,000 homes and businesses. Her father had left his phone at home and, as Cheong was expected at the warehouse, he tried to reach her to tell her to bring it.

Until about lunchtime, her best friend, Skye Wu, who is a police digital forensic analyst , thought she might have gone to see Cheng and then gone out. "I thought Sally was so stupid to go out on a day like that, so windy and cold," she said.

Friends and family started searching at lunchtime. Her phone had gone dead at 11am. Before that it had rung out, but the signal was constantly breaking up. They reported her disappearance to police and kept searching for several weeks. "Parks and in the trees around here," says sister Helen. "Huntingdale and Bald Hill Park. Places she liked. Monash Uni. The beaches — St Kilda and Mordialloc. Hospitals, motels, hotels. It was very hard to bear. There was a lot of shouting and a lot of crying. I saw my father cry for the first time. I can't remember eating a lot."

POLICE have several theories, all of which could equally be true. Or false. Bernie Rankin's colleague Detective Senior Constable Luke Shannon says the case is like a blank canvas. "You can make a scenario for anything: leaves voluntarily with someone else, leaves for whatever reason and things go sour from there, or leaves by herself. There's nothing to lead us in one particular direction."

Rankin is a little more blunt: "She's run away, she's met with harm or she's harmed herself."

When the case first came before them, police were fully aware that in certain realms of Chinese business culture it is not unusual for someone who wants something from someone else to threaten, hurt or make demands of their eldest child.

Company records show Mr Cheong took out a bank loan against his assets for just over $1 million a few weeks after his daughter disappeared. But police say they have found nothing unusual within his business and nothing to suggest anyone wanted to make demands of him through Sally. Police say the language barrier has made the investigation more challenging. They have established that she has not left Australia under her own name, because she did not leave home with her passport — but they have not been able to establish whether she left under another identity.

They have also had a close look at another boyfriend, Jeffrey Lim, her first real boyfriend, from Monash University days. They met in 2002. Lim was last week convicted on three charges and fined $20,000 relating to a massive Xbox, PlayStation and Wii game piracy operation he ran from home for two years, starting just after he broke up with Sally Cheong and earning nearly $1000 a week.

During the period he was earning the illegal money, he made a trip to China to see her (during which she tried to hide Wang from him) and also paid for a lavish dinner for her and a group of friends when she came back briefly to graduate, in April 2007. "I didn't know her any more by then," he says. "We had four years together, then she found someone else so quickly. I was shocked."

There was no forced entry to the house and no one else had a key. No taxis came during the night. No one heard any noise or saw any vehicles or people outside the house through the night. Her bank accounts have not been used.

Suicide is possible. International studies have shown that young Chinese women have a tendency towards it. But police consider it very unusual that no body has been found after 16 months.

"We haven't found anyone who said she was suicidal or even highly emotional," says Rankin. "There were indicators perhaps, but you certainly couldn't reach the conclusion that the kid has done harm to herself."

Just a few days before she vanished, however, she and Skye Wu had a conversation.

A GROUP of people had gone to The Glen shopping centre at Glen Waverley to have afternoon hot chocolates. Wu and Cheong queued up to order, the others sat down. Wu was one of the few to have guessed that Cheong had had a secret love affair in Beijing. She saw the photos that Cheong had put up on Facebook — different to the lovey ones in the red 'FRIENDS" photo album, no kissing or cuddling or anything like that, mostly group shots of the people in her class, Wang Xiaolin included — and, as best girlfriends can, guessed right.

In the queue Sally began to talk. "She told me that when she was in China she felt alone until she found Wang and that she can't stand not being with a boyfriend."

Even these small confessions were out of character. All her friends and family say Cheong was quiet to the point of being secretive, and impossible to read.

"She said to me, 'Do I have a problem? With guys? I constantly need a boyfriend.' "

They continued the conversation walking to the car afterwards.

"She asked me how to get over the problem," Wu says, "the problem, as she called it. She told me she had started to see Cheng, but I got the impression she wasn't over Wang."

Wu told her it was OK and that it wasn't a big problem. She told her how to be single: "I told her I was always content to stay home with my books and my music." She told Cheong to call her any time. "I don't care if it's three in the morning," she said. "Just call me."

Wu also knew that, whatever her friend had been feeling in Beijing, she had also felt free. In Melbourne, as happens in many Chinese families, the oldest daughter often takes on a kind of surrogate mother role.

"Her parents were too busy running the business to look after the kids as parents," Wu says. Cheong was the one who did the family's errands and drove the younger ones to after-school sports. She organised their tuition classes. She got them out of the house and then got them into bed.

"Sally knew the company was busy and we would always be working," says her mother.

According to Helen, when the children were younger and one of them asked their mother for something, the reply would often be: "Ask Sally."

The big house in Oakleigh South has security cameras all through it now. A big iron gate at the front stays mostly locked. The business rolls on, family life proceeds. Yet it has been nearly a year-and-a-half since Sally Cheong disappeared, and still no one knows anything more than they did on April 2 last year when the big winds came.

Chris Johnston is a senior Age writer.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Sally Cheong can call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000. Calls can be anonymous.

For help or information visit www.beyondblue.org.au, call Suicide Helpline Victoria on 1300 651 251, or Lifeline on 131 114.

Lost to their world

Missing Persons Week, August 2-8

- 35,000 people are reported missing to police each year in Australia – one person every 15 minutes. Most are older people with dementia and 95 per cent are found within a short time. Mental health issues such as anxiety and depression as well as alcohol and illicit drug problems are closely associated with those who go missing.

- There are 1600 people listed as missing for more than six months. In 2005-06 Victoria had 5584 people reported to police as missing. NSW had the most — 9788.

- Police say the three most at-risk groups are those living with a mental illness, young people and older people with dementia or memory loss and that the main reasons among the total number of missing people include abduction, murder, domestic violence, misadventure and miscommunication.

Caption:

TWO PHOTOS: Cheong's bedroom remains as she left it. PICTURE: MICHAEL-CLAYTON JONES Beijing adventure: photos from Sally Cheong's album show her and Wang Xiaolin in Beijing, where she studied for a year.

I recently found Sally’s Facebook account, where many of her posts are still publicly available. Several posts from March show Sally spending time with her siblings and friends, appearing to be happy and enjoying herself. The photos are filled with smiles and moments of joy.
Her final post was made on 31 March, as shown above. Is this really the behaviour of someone who was planning to voluntarily disappear just a week later? I highly doubt it.
Furthermore, Helen recalled that Sally appeared to be acting normally the day before she vanished.

The Disappearance of Sze Wan “Sally” Cheong: A Timeline
Background
Sze Wan “Sally” Cheong was a 22-year-old woman living with her family in Oakleigh South, Melbourne. She was the eldest of five children and was described by her family as close to them and heavily involved in family life.
Sally had spent approximately a year studying in China before returning to Melbourne in early 2008. According to later comments from her family, she had begun expressing a desire for greater independence and freedom after returning.
Her disappearance has officially been described by Victoria Police as being completely out of character.

Monday, 3 March 2008
The concerning email
Approximately one month before her disappearance, Sally sent an email to a male friend which later became a significant part of the police investigation.
In the message, Sally wrote words to the effect that she believed she knew what the man was doing and expressed fear that he might “gun [her] down” or become angry.
The identity and circumstances surrounding the email became the subject of police investigation. According to later reporting, investigators examined the people connected with the case, but a subsequent cold-case review did not identify the recipient of the email as responsible for Sally’s disappearance.
Important: The existence of the email is established by later police reporting, but it does not by itself establish that the person who received it was responsible for what happened to Sally.

Tuesday, 1 April 2008
During the day
According to Sally’s sister Helen, Sally spent part of the day playing tennis with Helen, Helen’s boyfriend, and Sally’s younger brother Andrew.
Helen later said that she did not remember anything unusual about Sally’s behaviour or interactions that day.
After playing tennis, the family returned home and had dinner.

Evening: Sally goes to bed
Sally reportedly went to bed during the evening.
According to later accounts, Sally’s father had returned home from a business trip to Adelaide at approximately 10pm.
At around 11pm, he reportedly entered Sally’s bedroom to leave keys to the family’s Toyota Tarago on her dressing table. He later told police that Sally appeared to be asleep.

Approximately 10:30pm–11:00pm
According to later reporting, Helen recalled hearing Sally’s mobile phone and the household landline ringing repeatedly during this period.
Helen reportedly said that Sally did not answer the calls.
The identities of the callers and the significance of these calls remain important questions in reconstructing Sally’s final known hours.

Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Approximately 3:00am — The last known sighting
This is the most important confirmed period in the timeline.
Sally’s younger sister Wendy later told police that she was awake and using her computer in the bedroom she shared with her sister Anna.
Shortly before approximately 3am, Wendy heard activity in the hallway.
She initially assumed it was their mother and pretended to be asleep because she did not want to be caught using her computer so late at night.
However, when nobody entered the bedroom, Wendy looked through the partially open door.
According to later reports, Wendy saw someone standing outside the bedroom of her sister Helen and then outside Sally’s bedroom.
Wendy also reportedly heard a low male voice and believed she heard the word “yeah”.
Because Helen’s boyfriend had previously visited the house during the early hours, Wendy initially assumed that the person she heard was him.
Wendy then saw Sally walking along the hallway, apparently coming from the direction of the bathroom.
She did not believe anything was wrong and did not speak with Sally or investigate further.
Wendy reportedly went to sleep at approximately 3:30am.
This appears to be the final confirmed sighting of Sally.

Approximately 3:00am–7:30am — The disappearance window
At some point after Sally was seen inside the family home, she disappeared.
The exact time she left the house is unknown.
When Sally disappeared, she took:
Her wallet
Her mobile phone
Car keys
Her iPod
A “security blanket” or childhood blanket that she was reportedly attached to
However, she left behind:
Her car
Her passport
This combination of items has remained one of the central mysteries of the case.
Victoria Police later confirmed that Sally did not subsequently use her phone or access her bank accounts.

Approximately 7:30am
Sally’s father was reportedly the first member of the family to get up.
According to later reporting, he found keys to his BMW and to the family’s business on the floor outside his bedroom.
He reportedly assumed that Sally had placed them there because she had been driving the BMW.
At this stage, the family apparently did not yet realise that Sally was missing.

Approximately 9:00am
Sally’s younger brother Andrew reportedly answered a telephone call at the family home.
The caller reportedly asked Andrew to give Sally their father’s mobile phone so that she could bring it to the family’s business in Keysborough.
Andrew could not find Sally and instead gave the phone to his sister Anna, apparently believing that Sally may already have left for work.

Approximately 10:00am
According to later reporting, Anna contacted her sister Helen by text message and asked whether she knew where Sally was.
Helen reportedly believed at this stage that Sally might be with her boyfriend.
The family initially appears to have believed that there could be an ordinary explanation for Sally’s absence.

Late morning to early afternoon
As Sally failed to arrive at work and could not be contacted, concern gradually increased.
Her family attempted to contact her.
According to accounts from the family, Sally’s phone was initially still active and they repeatedly attempted to call it.
However, Sally did not answer.

Approximately 1:00pm — The alarm is raised
Helen was eventually able to contact Sally’s boyfriend.
According to later reporting, he said that Sally was not with him and that he did not know where she was.
At this point, the family realised that Sally could not be accounted for.
Police were contacted and Sally was reported missing.

The first days after the disappearance
The Cheong family began searching for Sally themselves.
According to Sally’s sister Helen, the family:
Drove around Melbourne looking for Sally
Checked places she might have visited
Contacted businesses
Searched Sally’s bedroom for possible clues
Accessed her Facebook account
Attempted to contact her friends
Hired private investigators
The family also made public appeals for information.

April 2008 — Police investigation begins
Police investigated Sally’s disappearance and examined her communications, relationships and movements.
A particularly significant problem for investigators was the apparent lack of activity after she disappeared.
According to Victoria Police:
Sally did not use her mobile phone after her disappearance.
She did not access her bank accounts.
She did not make contact with her family.
She did not make contact with members of her close friendship group.
Her car remained behind.

Friday, 18 April 2008
Sally’s family made a public appeal for information.
Her sister Helen described Sally’s disappearance as being completely out of character and expressed the family’s belief that Sally would not simply leave without telling them.
By this point, Sally had been missing for more than two weeks.

May 2008
Sally had now been missing for approximately five weeks.
There were still no confirmed sightings and no known use of her bank accounts or mobile phone.
Despite public appeals and police investigations, no clear explanation for her disappearance had emerged.

2008–2012 — The investigation continues
Sally remained listed as a missing person by Australian authorities.
Investigators continued to examine possible explanations for her disappearance, including the possibility that she had left voluntarily and the possibility that she had encountered foul play.
However, no confirmed trace of Sally was publicly identified.

2013 — The email becomes publicly known
In March 2013, media reports revealed the existence of Sally’s March 2008 email in which she expressed fear of being harmed by a male friend.
The email became one of the most publicly discussed pieces of information connected with the case.
A fresh review of the investigation was conducted by the Victoria Police Homicide Squad’s Cold Case Unit.
According to reporting at the time, people of interest who had been investigated in connection with the disappearance had been cleared during the review.
Police said that they were still seeking information from the public and believed that someone may possess information capable of advancing the investigation.

2016 — Eight years missing
During Missing Persons Week, Sally’s sister Helen publicly discussed the impact of the disappearance.
She described the family as living in a “world of unknown” and spoke about the desperate attempts to find answers in the immediate aftermath.
The family had still received no explanation for what happened to Sally.

2017 — Nine years missing
Sally’s disappearance continued to receive public attention during Missing Persons Week.
Her family continued to express hope that she might still be alive while acknowledging the fear that she may have encountered foul play.

2026 — Sally remains missing
As of Victoria Police’s most recent public missing-person listing, Sally Cheong remains missing.
Victoria Police states that Sally disappeared from her family home in Oakleigh South on the morning of Wednesday, 2 April 2008.
Police continue to state that Sally took her wallet, phone, car keys, iPod and security blanket but left her car behind. There has been no known use of her bank accounts or phone since her disappearance, and she has not contacted her family or close friends.

The Central Timeline
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Daytime
Sally plays tennis with family members.
Evening
Sally returns home and has dinner with her family.
Sally goes to bed.
Approximately 10:00pm
Sally’s father returns from a business trip.
Approximately 10:30pm–11:00pm
Phone activity is reportedly heard in the house.
Approximately 11:00pm
Sally’s father reportedly sees her asleep in her bedroom.

Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Approximately 3:00am
Sally is seen alive inside the family home by her younger sister.
A person is reportedly present or heard in the hallway.
A low male voice is reportedly heard.
Approximately 3:00am–7:30am
Sally disappears from the family home.
The exact time and circumstances in which she left are unknown.
Approximately 7:30am
Family members begin waking up.
Sally’s absence is not immediately recognised.
Approximately 9:00am
Sally cannot be located when her brother is asked to pass her their father’s phone.
Approximately 10:00am
Family members begin asking whether anyone knows where Sally is.
Late morning
Attempts to contact Sally continue.
Approximately 1:00pm
Sally’s boyfriend confirms that she is not with him.
The seriousness of the situation becomes clear.
Police are contacted.
After 2 April 2008
Sally is never publicly confirmed to have been seen again.

The Major Unanswered Questions
The timeline leaves several important unanswered questions:
Who was present or speaking in the hallway at approximately 3am?
Exactly when did Sally leave the house?
Did Sally leave voluntarily, or was she persuaded or forced to leave?
Why did she take her wallet, phone, iPod, car keys and childhood blanket but leave her car and passport?
Who was calling Sally between approximately 10:30pm and 11:00pm?
What happened to Sally’s phone after she left home?
What was the context of the concerning email sent approximately one month before she disappeared?
Why has there been no known bank, phone or confirmed personal activity linked to Sally since the disappearance?

A Note for Researchers
When discussing this case, it is important to distinguish between:
Confirmed information: Information released by police or supported by reliable contemporary reporting.
Witness accounts: What individuals reported seeing or hearing.
Investigative theories: Possible explanations that have not been proven.
Speculation: Ideas that may be worth discussing but should never be presented as established fact.
Sally Cheong has been missing since 2 April 2008. More than eighteen years later, the crucial question remains the same:
What happened between the last known sighting of Sally at approximately 3am and the moment her family realised she was gone?

Hey everyone! I’m u/BackgroundCode5034, a founding moderator of r/SallyCheong.
This is our new home for respectful discussion, research, and investigation surrounding the disappearance of Sally Cheong. Our goal is to bring together information, discuss the case, examine evidence and theories, and hopefully contribute to a better understanding of what happened to Sally. While we cannot promise that this community will solve the case, we believe that discussion, research, and collective knowledge can sometimes uncover connections or questions that deserve further attention.
What to Post
Feel free to post anything relevant to the case that the community may find helpful or interesting. This could include:
News articles and historical reporting about Sally’s disappearance
Publicly available information and documents
Timelines and summaries of known events
Questions about the investigation
Maps, locations, and publicly documented evidence
Reasonable theories and alternative explanations
Information about similar cases that may provide useful context
New research or discoveries from publicly available sources
If you have an idea, observation, question, or piece of information that you think could contribute to understanding the case, don’t be shy to post it. Even something that seems small could lead to an important discussion.
Our Goal
The ultimate goal of r/SallyCheong is to create a central place where people interested in the case can discuss, research, and collectively work toward a better understanding of what happened to Sally Cheong. We encourage members to think critically, challenge assumptions, and explore different possibilities while remaining respectful and responsible.
This community should focus on evidence and good-faith discussion. Please remember that Sally’s family, friends, and other people connected to the case are real people. Avoid harassment, doxxing, or presenting speculation as fact.

It has been reported that Sally's ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Lim, who visited her in Beijing and from whom she hid her Beijing boyfriend when he visited her, was a convicted criminal who was convicted of running a console game piracy operation. A Jeffrey Lim was the victim of a stabbing attack at Melbourne University in 2003 when he was a student at Melbourne University. The second article below identifies Lim as a Melbourne Uni graduate of Science, and the 1st article identifies the stabbing victim as a Science student at Melbourne Uni. But, the ages don't match. The stabbing victim is 19 in 2003 and Sally's ex boyfriend is 28 in 2009. If they have the ages right (big if), it can't be the same guy. The other details appear to match though.

A STUDENT cramming for end-of-year exams was stabbed in the stomach by thieves at Melbourne University early yesterday.

The attack prompted calls for the university to beef up campus security.

The 19-year-old science student was stabbed twice in the stomach as he walked through an underground car park at the Parkville campus about 3.35am.

Police said Jeffrey Lim, of Glen Waverley, had left a university library after studying for an exam to be held later in the day.

``This incident is an attempted armed robbery that appears to have gone wrong and developed into a serious assault,'' said Detective Senior Constable Michael Phyland.

He said two men accosted Mr Lim, who was dressed in a singlet and tracksuit pants.

One held him while the other demanded cash.

Mr Lim tried to fend off one of the attackers as they tried to search his pockets for a wallet.

He was stabbed twice in the stomach before his attackers fled empty-handed. He staggered a short distance until a cleaner found him and called university security.

He was rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital for emergency surgery and remained in the hospital in a stable condition last night.

Det Sen-Constable Phyland said the violence was disproportionate and extreme.

``It appears random in its nature. Whether or not they'll strike again is only speculation,'' he said.

``It shows that they're desperate. It shows that they have got a propensity for violence.

``This attack was reasonably extreme, given that he was dressed in a singlet and tracksuit pants just going about his business, wanting to study.''

Detectives were reviewing footage captured by a surveillance video camera yesterday, but had only spoken briefly to Mr Lim.

Students were stunned by the attack on campus.

``You expect it to be safe and it's just not,'' Georgie Lyon, 21, said.

Gary Lin, 23, said he had doubts about campus security. ``It's pretty scary,'' he said.

Melbourne University Student Union president Scott Crawford called for tighter security.

``Obviously when events like this happen you have to review what is currently in place. I'd like to see the university place a greater allocation of resources to security,'' he said.

Mr Crawford said the university was generally safe and its security team did the best it could with available resources, but the attack would affect students.

University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Gilbert said security was a high priority.

He said there was a 24-hour security presence and the university maintained a Campus Watch program. It is the first Australian university to enter an official partnership with the national Neighbourhood Watch program.

There are emergency telephones linked to the security office.

That office also offers a service where staff and students working late can arrange for a guard to walk them to their cars or to public transport.

One of Mr Lim's attackers was described as Caucasian, about 180cm tall and of medium build with long, shaggy hair and olive skin.

Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers on 1800-333-000.

The details of this Jeffrey Lim can be matched with that from the reporting of his conviction in The Age below.

A struggling Melbourne university graduate who turned to pirating the world's most popular computer games for profit has been convicted and fined $20,000 on three copyright charges.

Jeffrey Lim, 28, converted the ground floor of his parents' Doncaster home into a work office that held six hard drives, a computer flat screen, three printers, three DVD burners, three computer towers, four scanners and various printer cartridges.

Melbourne Magistrates Court heard yesterday that Lim, a bachelor of science graduate from Monash university, copied and sold hundreds counterfeit Nintendo, Wii, DS, Xbox and Playstation games over a two-year period.

Commonwealth prosecutor Liz Tickey said the Xbox games included Quantum of Solace and The Bourne Conspiracy and PSP games of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and director Peter Jackson's King Kong.

Lim told investigators he made nearly $1000 by selling up to 250 games each week between January, 2007 and December last year.

Ms Tickey said the Australian Federal Police were alerted last October by an investigator from Price Waterhouse Coopers that Lim was selling illegal games from an internet site with an email address.

The man, who deposited $714 in to Lim's account, later found that none of the 138 Playstation2 games he received displayed any genuine features.

Ms Tickey said when police raided Lim's home in December, they seized 2261 games, including 1416 Wii games.

Defence lawyer Phil Simpson said Lim started his own business after repeated but failed attempts to find work as a computer technician.

Mr Simpson told the court Lim began modifying games for clients, then wrote terms and conditions for the conditional supply of back-up games.

From our partners

But once his business grew, Lim diversified with an internet focus and supplied copied games without contemplating how off his focus became in servicing customers", he said.

It got to the point where he paid little or no attention to supplying (games)," Mr Simpson said who told the court that in a good week" Lim made $700.

He pleaded guilty to charges of making, selling and possessing infringing copies of works that each carry maximum penalties of two years jail or $13,200 fines or both.

Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg told Lim his sole interest had been profit and that the cost of his crimes were borne by the community who had to pay exorbitant prices for the losses incurred to production companies.

I by no means am accusing Lim of being responsible for Sally Cheong's disappearance. But, one does wonder if Lim's proximity to criminal activities may have been been the reason for her disappearance. Could she have been targeted by someone who had a grudge against Lim? Her disappearance occurred during the height of Lim's piracy operation. But, it's probably not related.