Ex-Warwick University student found murdered in woods

[dutchman]

A young woman found murdered in woods in Derbyshire was a former Coventry student, the Telegraph has learned.



Economics graduate Jia Ashton, aged 25, studied at the University of Warwick between 2004 and 2007.

There she met fellow student Matthew Ashton who would later become her husband.

Jia, who was Chinese, was last seen as she left the Thorntons chocolate factory, where she worked as a business analyst, on Thursday, March 10.

Her body was found three days later, dumped in Sleetmoor Woods, in Alfreton, Derbyshire, just 300 metres away.

After learning of Jia’s death, Professor Jeremy Smith from the University of Warwick’s economics department, paid tribute to the former student.

He said: “I knew Jia both as a lecturer on one of her courses and as her personal tutor. Jia was a very good, conscientious, and hard working student.

“She had boundless energy and enthusiasm for everything that she undertook and she did a fantastic number of different things in her time at Warwick.

"She was an active member of both the Chinese Society and the Economics Society where she helped to organise a two-day economics summit.

“Her death has come as a great shock to all who knew her at Warwick.”

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