A wealthy American student at Goldsmiths in London, Joshua Michals, has been convicted of murdering his girlfriend Zhe Wang, inside her London apartment with a knife after she accused him of giving him a sexually transmitted infection. The murder took place in 2024 when Michals went to Wang’s flat to end the fight they were having, but ended Wang’s life and then called his father for a lawyer before calling an ambulance.Michals told the investigators that they had been dating for six months and had only had sex once because Wang was a germophobe. She would disinfect his sofa at his apartment before she sat on it, cleaned his apartment when she came to visit and even gave detailed instructions when they agreed to have sex. The instructions were on how to enter her apartment, wash himself, put on the condom before coming to the bedroom etc. Wang insisted that Michals showed her his SIT result before sex but after their sex, Wang developed a rash and asked Michals to go through another test, When Michals refused, Wang accused him of ruining her life and threatened to report to the university. On the day of the murder, when Michals went to her apartment, a fight broke out and Michals claimed Wang attacked him with a knife, resulting in a knife fight. Autopsy confirmed that Wang died from stab wounds to the head and compression to the neck. Michals told the jurors that he did not mean to attack Wang but just tried to defend himself. Prosecutors said Wang might have survived if Michals had called the ambulance instead of calling his father to get the details of a solicitor. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Michals studied filmmaking at university before moving to London to pursue a year-long master’s degree at Goldsmiths. Wang was a creative writing student at Goldsmiths. They met on the campus and began an on-and-off casual relationship in 2023.
