Mitchell Schmidt and Holly Hines,

Iowa City Press-Citizen

IOWA CITY, Ia. – After finding a body in a car trunk, police said Saturday they want to talk to a man who has left the country about the disappearance of an Iowa State University student.

"We have reason to believe that the person of interest is in China at this time," said Sgt. Scott Gaarde, spokesman for the Iowa City Police Department. "At this time we have just one person of interest."

Gaarde didn't identify the man; another Iowa City police officer has called him the boyfriend of Tong Shao, 20, an ISU junior who was last seen Sept. 6.

Authorities have not announced the identity of the body found late Friday outside an apartment complex. The body was in the trunk of a car that Ames police had asked for the public's help to find a few hours earlier, saying only that Shao had had access to it. Neighbors recalled seeing the car and noticing a smell earlier.

Police have said that Shao was last heard from Sept. 8, when she indicated she was in Iowa City.

Officers discovered the vehicle at an apartment development in the southeastern part of Iowa City on Friday and obtained a search warrant because of an odor around the car, police said.

Trystian Escher, 18, who lives with his father at the complex, told the Iowa City Press-Citizen that he saw a man move the car Friday.

He later watched, half-asleep, from his window as police cordoned off the scene Friday night. Close to 40 residents gathered behind the police tape as medical examiner officials removed the body and placed it on a stretcher.

His father, Chad Escher, said that the car was parked in the spot where he normally parks on Friday morning and that he noticed a bad smell.

Cleaster Taylor, 48, who lives in the building across from the scene, also said the car struck her as unusual before Friday night. She said that about two weeks ago, when her son dropped her off at home after a trip to the grocery store, she saw a male get out of the car.

John Salmon and Tori Chick have lived in the apartment complex since August and said they had noticed the car on the property in different locations for a number of days, if not weeks.

"It's shocking just that it happened," Salmon said. "It's not every day that you hear there's a dead body 20 feet from your apartment."

In Ames on Saturday, Shao's roommate at an off-campus apartment declined to be interviewed. None of her neighbors were home when a reporter visited, and friends declined to comment. An ISU spokeswoman also declined to comment. Documents on ISU's website identify Shao as a member of the university's honors program who has been on the dean's list and received a chemical engineering department scholarship. Her hometown is listed as Dalian, China, a seaport city on a peninsula east of Beijing.

Mike Hensch, administrator with the Johnson County Medical Examiner's office, said an autopsy was underway on the body Saturday afternoon.

Brotherton said the body appeared to have been in the trunk for a number of days.

"It's unfortunate that it had to end this way," he said. "Whoever that is has been there for some time."

The Iowa City Police Department is investigating with the assistance of Ames police, the Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Johnson County Medical Examiner's office, Johnson County Sheriff's Office, Coralville Police Department, University of Iowa Police Department and the Johnson County Attorney.

Register staff writer Katherine Klingseis contributed to this story.