It was just after 10:30 this morning. Police were called to Snapper Point following reports a body a woman’s body was found face down in a blowhole. >> Post-mortem revealed that the woman had suffered a number of wounds, significantly some stab wounds. Our interpretation of the situation is that she suffered a violent assault prior to her death.
will face court today after he allegedly killed a Chinese student and dumped her body on the New South Wales Central Coast. She was found completely naked in the water near Snapper Point blowhole. Almost 40 stab wounds. The fatal injury was to her throat. At around 10:30 in the morning, a paramedic was lowered down from a helicopter to recover her body.
And right away, police understood this wasn’t a fall from the cliffs. It wasn’t some tragic accident. This was murder. Just a few days earlier, a 25-year-old student had vanished after what seemed like a totally normal Thursday, April 21st, 2016. She spent the day with friends near the University of Technology in Sydney. Then she said she was going to do a little shopping.
At around 4:30 in the afternoon, she returned to Campsie station. After that, silence. She wasn’t answering her phone. She didn’t show up to class. She stopped posting on social media even though she was usually active every single day. After 4 days, her family reported her missing. Her aunt and her aunt’s husband went to the police themselves.
The body found in the water was given a temporary name, Jane Doe. After DNA testing, it was officially identified. It was her. The student who had moved from China to Australia for her education. She was living with relatives. She was working. She was sending money back home to her mother. Then things started moving fast.
Security cameras captured a car entering the National Park just a few hours before her body was found in the water. Phone data confirmed the route. The car belonged to a man who lived under the same roof as her, Derek Barrett, her uncle by marriage. He was the one who helped file the missing person report.
Police found photos on his phone. In the pictures, she was lying on a bed, tied up, her hands and body wrapped tightly with tape, her mouth covered with cloth. Those photos were taken before she died. Investigators determined the attack happened almost immediately after she returned home on April 21st. The house was empty. In her own bedroom, she was restrained and held there.
How long she remained alive, that part is still unclear. Between 4:45 on Thursday afternoon and Sunday morning, he stabbed her dozens of times. Her body was wrapped in plastic. He drove to Snapper Point. On the way, he stopped to buy a snack like nothing had happened. Then he threw her off the cliff into the water.
18 months later, he pleaded guilty. He admitted he tied her up, covered her mouth, and killed her. The charges included unlawful detention, sexual assault, and secret recordings. 19 counts of illegal filming. But that wasn’t the end of the story. 3 years later, a random discovery of a USB flash drive uncovered new evidence.
On the videos, he had recorded himself torturing and raping her while she was tied up. The court described the crime as exceptionally brutal. He was sentenced to 46 years in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 34 years. This is a case about trust that turned into a trap, about a home that was supposed to be safe, and about a crime that didn’t unfold in chaos, but step by step from hidden obsession to calculated cold-blooded murder.
Next, we’re walking through the full timeline of what happened between April 21st and April 24th, 2016. But to really understand the details of this story, we have to start at the very beginning. 25-year-old Mengmei Leng was an international student living in Campsie, New South Wales.
After moving to Australia, she began going by the name Michelle. She was an only child, and after losing her father in 2008, she and her mother, May, became closer than ever. Her mom described her as someone with incredible compassion, the kind of person who genuinely cared about everyone around her and always tried to support her friends >> >> even when she herself felt exhausted or overwhelmed.
In 2011, Michelle made the brave decision to move from Chengdu, China to Australia to study. Australia is a large, modern country with developed infrastructure and comfortable living conditions. It’s easy to travel between cities thanks to strong air connections and well-maintained highways. The cities are clean, the parks are well-kept, and there are plenty of public spaces to relax.
Most tourists come for the beaches and the big city atmosphere. The climate varies depending on the region, so planning around the season definitely matters. English is the main language, so communication is usually not a problem for visitors. Australia is generally considered a safe country with high service standards. In major cities, you can find hotels at every level from budget to premium.
Public transportation is stable and pretty easy for foreigners to navigate. It’s the kind of place where you can mix active city life with peaceful time by the ocean. By the way, what city are you watching from? And what time is it there right now? I’m actually really curious where everyone’s tuning in from.
Go ahead and drop it in the comments, and while you’re doing that, I’ll keep going. Even though her mom was deeply worried, she was also incredibly proud of her daughter’s courage to step outside her comfort zone and build a future for herself. May invested all her savings into Michelle’s education and couldn’t wait to see her achieve everything she was capable of.
Some of Michelle’s relatives were already living in Australia, so she moved in with her aunt, uncle, and cousin in Campsie, a suburb in New South Wales. Once she got settled and back on her feet, she started sending every extra dollar she could back home to her mother. Let’s fast forward to 2016. Michelle had already been living in Australia for 5 years.
She had a great group of friends. She liked where she lived. She was doing really well academically. After earning her degree in business from the University of Technology Sydney, she enrolled at the Sydney Institute of Interpreting and Translation. That warm Thursday afternoon, Michelle met up with a few friends.
They hung out for a bit, just a normal day, nothing unusual. And when it was time to leave, they waved goodbye as she got on a bus near the University of Technology. I’m just going to do a little shopping. She told them and then headed toward Pitt Street Mall. She stayed there for a while, walking through the stores on her own, browsing, taking her time.
She looked at different items, moved from shop to shop, and ended up buying a few things. Just a regular afternoon, you know, nothing rushed, nothing strange. At around 4:00 in the afternoon, Michelle got on a train to St. James Station. And by 4:30, she stepped off at Campsie Station to head back to her apartment.
Later that afternoon, she was still texting with friends. Everything seemed normal, casual messages, regular conversation. >> >> And then, suddenly, silence. She wasn’t answering calls. She stopped posting on her usually active social media accounts. And the next morning, she didn’t show up for class. Her sudden disappearance raised red flags for friends and classmates, but it still took a few days before anyone officially reported her missing.
4 days after Michelle was last seen at the shopping mall, her aunt returned home from a weekend trip, and she was stunned to learn that her niece had simply vanished. Together with her husband, Derek, she immediately went to the local police station to file a report. According to her friends, there was absolutely nothing unusual about Michelle’s behavior that day.
She acted like she always did. Surveillance footage shows her wearing jeans, a gray long-sleeve sweater, and carrying a red bag over her shoulder. No one appeared to be following her in the stores. >> >> And on the outside, she didn’t look upset or anxious at all. It just looked like a normal day, like everything was fine.
And that’s what makes it even harder to process. Michelle was seen in security video shopping at Myer in the Pitt Street Mall last Thursday at 3:00 p.m. She bought a juice before getting on a train at St. James Station at 4:30 p.m. and getting off at Campsie. Close friends told police they hadn’t had contact with her since late on Thursday night.
While people on social media were sharing her photo and growing more and more concerned, television channels more than 60 miles away were already picking up a different, deeply disturbing story. Snapper Point blowhole, along the coast of New South Wales, is known as a picturesque but risky spot. Beautiful views, yeah, but also slick rocks and sharp cliff edges.
It’s the kind of place where you could easily slip, fall into the water, get seriously injured, or even drown. One tourist walking nearby noticed what looked like a person floating in the water. At first, maybe it didn’t seem unusual. But when he looked closer, he realized the person wasn’t swimming.
She was face down, and she looked lifeless. At around 10:30 in the morning, a paramedic was lowered into the water from a helicopter to retrieve the body. The individual was already dead, and it quickly became clear this was not a tragic accident. It was a young woman. She was completely naked and covered in stab wounds.
In total, she had been stabbed nearly 40 times, and the fatal injury was to her throat. It was obvious she had tried to fight back desperately, but her death was incredibly violent and horrific. Police stated that the body had most likely been left right near the blowhole, not carried there by waves from somewhere else.
A detective inspector noted that the ocean had been especially rough that day. And when her body was pulled from the water, there were no signs of major impact injuries from being thrown against the rocks. In other words, she hadn’t simply fallen. So, at this point, we’re operating under the assumption that she most likely entered the water right there near the blowhole.
It was just after 10:30 this morning, police were called to Snapper Point following reports a body a woman’s body was found face down in a blowhole. >> Post-mortem revealed that the woman had suffered a number of wounds. Significantly, some stab wounds. Our interpretation of the situation is that she suffered a violent assault prior to her death.
The description of the woman who at this point in time have not identified is a Asian female aged between 20 and 35, medium build, shoulder-length hair. She has no distinguishing tattoos or scars on the body. Her body was naked when it was found in the water, and all jewelry had been removed. >> Anybody who knows this woman or knows anything about this crime is urged to contact police.
The New South Wales Homicide Squad released a computer-generated image of the woman who had been found, a young Asian woman with shoulder-length dark hair. She was given the temporary name Snapper Point Blowhole Jane Doe. As this information spread more widely through the media, people online started connecting the dots.
They began wondering if Michelle’s disappearance was linked to the woman whose body had been found in the water. DNA testing confirmed it. The victim was the 25-year-old student. Events started moving fast. The very next day, police detained a suspect. Every member of Michelle’s family and her closest circle was questioned extensively.
Her apartment was turned upside down. Investigators also went through digital evidence in detail. After tracking a vehicle caught on surveillance cameras entering a national park about 4 hours before Michelle’s body was found in the water, >> >> detectives publicly named their suspect, her uncle, Derek Barrett.
He was the man she lived with. He was also the one who helped file her missing person report. Derek, who was 27 at the time, had married Michelle’s aunt a few years earlier. Not much is known about his background. He had previously worked in information technology, but had been unemployed for a significant period.
When detectives examined Derek’s phone, they discovered deeply disturbing images. In the photographs, Michelle was lying on her own bed, tied up, her mouth sealed. Her hands and body were tightly bound with adhesive tape, and her mouth was covered with white fabric. Police later said that the expression on her face, and it’s hard to even imagine, is something they will never forget.
The mother of murdered student Michelle Leng has thanked police and the Australian Chinese community who have been helping her family through this terrible time. Mrs. Zhong says words can’t describe the pain she feels over the loss of her only child. A fund has also been set up to help pay for Michelle’s funeral and take care of her mother. Derek was denied bail.
He made his first court appearance sitting silently as the details of the case were read aloud. Two months later, even more charges were filed against him, a total of 27 counts, including unlawful detention for advantage and indecent assault. After comparing surveillance footage with phone data from both Michelle and Derek, investigators concluded the attack happened almost immediately after she came home that day.
The house was empty. In her own bedroom, Michelle was tied up and sexually assaulted. The motive was clearly sexual in nature. At some point, while Michelle was still alive, her cousin came home. She had no idea that just a few meters away, someone was being held captive. Exactly how long Derek kept Michelle alive, police were never able to determine.
What is known is this. Sometime between 4:45 on Thursday, April 21st, and 10:30 on Sunday morning, April 24th, he stabbed her. The wounds were fatal. On the morning of April 24th, he wrapped her body in plastic. The rustling of the material cut through the quiet of early morning, a dry, sharp sound unmistakable.
His movements were hurried, but controlled enough to carry out what he intended. There was no visible panic, just a mechanical sequence of actions. After that, he set out towards Snapper Point. Phone data mapped his route down to the minute from the moment he left the house all the way to the coastline. Every turn, every stop.
Technology silently recorded the path that would later become evidence. On the way, he stopped to buy a snack. That detail is chilling in its ordinariness, a routine transaction, a brief pause. Against the backdrop of what had just happened, it feels almost unreal. Then he drove to the blowhole, coastal cliffs, wind rolling in from the sea, the heavy sound of waves crashing below.
That’s where he pushed her body off the edge, the height, the rocks, the water. It may have seemed like the perfect way to make it all disappear. Michelle ended up in a place that once meant joy to her. Years earlier, during a trip, she had taken a photo there and excitedly posted it on Instagram. Back then, it was about the view, the light, the open horizon.
It was a memory of youth, of travel, of possibility. The same location, the same cliffs, but a completely different story. Man will face court today after he allegedly killed a Chinese student and dumped her body on the New South Wales Central Coast. >> In April 2016, Derek was formally charged with murder. That was the procedural step that officially moved the case into full criminal prosecution.
After investigators gathered evidence and completed key investigative actions, the charge was clearly and publicly laid out. But Derek pleaded not guilty. He denied any involvement in the crime despite the growing body of evidence already in the hands of investigators. At that stage of the process, his position remained firm, complete denial.
Michelle’s family flew in from China as soon as her identity was confirmed. For them, it wasn’t just a long trip across the world, it was an emotional journey they never should have had to make. They left their home to be closer to the place where the fate of their daughter’s case would be decided.
From that point on, they were present at every single >> >> court hearing. Day after day, they took their seats inside that courtroom, listening carefully to every word, every testimony, every legal statement. For them, this wasn’t just a legal proceeding. It wasn’t just paperwork and procedure.
It was a fight for the truth, a fight for Michelle’s memory, and a desperate need for answers to questions that had changed their lives forever. Michelle Leng’s distraught mother, supported in court by the wife of the man accused of fatally stabbing her daughter. Michelle’s mother left court promising to speak publicly about her daughter tomorrow.
Just what what kind of a person was she then? She was a person that like an angel. In China, her murder has made national headlines. There’s a lot of international students in Sydney, and their parents in China. So, they were really, really concerned with this news. As those closest to her struggle to comprehend her violent death.
His defense attorney argued that his client was struggling severely with life behind bars. According to the defense, the isolation and prison conditions were having a serious psychological impact on him. They emphasized his alleged vulnerability, his difficulty adapting, and what they described as emotional exhaustion.
At the same time, his lawyer maintained that Derek denied the charges against him. Despite the evidence already presented and earlier positions made public, the defense strategy continued to rest on a complete denial of responsibility. And mhm, that created a sharp contrast. On one side, there was the evidence laid out in court and the conclusions from experts.
On the other, there was this narrative focusing on his mental and emotional state. These statements became part of a broader defense strategy, an attempt to soften how the accused was perceived, shifting attention toward his condition rather than the severity of the crime itself.
But for Michelle’s family, those arguments felt distant, painful even. Given the scale of their loss and the weight of the evidence revealed during the trial, it was hard to hear anything that seemed to center sympathy anywhere else. “He is clearly very upset and in shock,” his lawyer said. “He’s finding it extremely difficult at the Sydney Police Center.
It’s a terrible place to be held, and I can only hope he’ll be transferred soon.” That statement, delivered in a calm courtroom setting, stood in stark contrast to the gravity of the case itself. 18 months later, in December 2017, Derek finally pleaded guilty. This came after a long period of denial and procedural battles.
His admission was clear and formal. He confirmed that he tied Michelle up and covered her mouth before killing her and disposing of her body. There was no dramatic emotion in the courtroom when those words were spoken, but the weight of them, it was heavy. They locked in the sequence of events, restraint, violence, death, and an attempt to conceal the crime.
Beyond that, Derek also pleaded guilty to 21 additional charges. 19 of those counts involved illegally recording Michelle for sexual gratification. These were deliberate recordings of intimate material made without her consent. He also admitted guilt to unlawful detention for advantage, along with three counts of indecent acts against a person over the age of 16.
Taken together, the charges showed a pattern. This wasn’t a single impulsive act. It was repeated behavior, systematic. Derek claimed he struggled with addiction. He stated that at the time of the murder, he had been using methamphetamine and smoking synthetic cannabis. According to his version of events, the substances affected his state of mind.
He said he had no memory of what happened that weekend, like just a blank space. He told the court the only thing he remembered was seeing his own reflection in a mirror and blood in the sink. A short fragment, an image without context. Everything else he claimed was gone. The judge rejected those claims.
The court noted that the distress he displayed appeared somewhat exaggerated and did not convincingly support his assertion of memory loss. His demeanor in court did not match someone suffering from a profound psychological collapse over what had happened. A forensic psychologist, identified in court as Dr.
F, testified that in his professional opinion, Derek was feigning amnesia. He assessed that this was an attempt to distance himself from specific actions and reduce his responsibility. The conclusion was direct. The claimed memory loss was not clinically supported and appeared to be a defense strategy rather than a genuine condition.
He then added, “What Derek is saying about being addicted to methamphetamine, it just doesn’t sound convincing.” The psychologist stated, “I’ve never seen an overweight methamphetamine addict. Derek showed a complete lack of awareness of how severe his crimes were and an obvious absence of empathy.” According to the prosecution, nothing in his behavior reflected genuine remorse or an understanding of the damage he had caused.
There was no visible emotional response to the victim’s suffering. Just a cold detachment. One of the most disturbing aspects of the case was the fact that he photographed her while she was tied up, her mouth taped shut, terror clearly visible on her face. And this was before her death. That wasn’t accidental. It wasn’t impulsive.
>> >> The camera captured total helplessness. The fear was obvious. The awareness of danger was obvious, too. And yet, he continued documenting what was happening. What happened afterward only intensified the assessment of cruelty. The disposal of her body was not chaotic or panicked.
It was a sequence of deliberate steps that required time, planning, and physical effort. Transporting her body over a significant distance added another layer of calculation. This didn’t look like someone spiraling out of control. It looked controlled, intentional. Like he was trying to erase the evidence while staying fully composed.
The court also emphasized actions that clearly indicated sexual deviance. Taken together, the recordings, the disposal of the body, the transportation of her cross distance, these elements formed a picture of extreme brutality. This wasn’t just physical violence. It reflected profound moral collapse. And that’s exactly how his conduct was characterized in court.
Derek wrote a letter to Michelle’s mother. In it, he stated, “I can only imagine what you’re going through because of this loss. Every single moment of my life, >> >> I wish I could go back in time and undo that day that caused so much pain. I allowed my own problems to enter your family’s home, and they paid an unbearable price for that.
This period of my life doesn’t let me sleep. I wake up in tears. I’m haunted by nightmares. I lost everything because of one senseless weekend. My sense of time back then feels blurred. You have no idea how much it tears me apart every day trying to understand how this happened and why I chose that path.
I betrayed both my own family and yours. >> >> I disgust myself.” However, Judge Helen Wilson did not believe his words. She listened carefully to the defendant’s position, but ultimately concluded that his explanations did not align with the evidence presented in court. His version of events conflicted with the established facts, the expert findings, and the documented circumstances.
In her assessment, she relied not on emotion, but on the totality of the evidence. The judge stated that his claims appeared implausible and were not supported by the evidentiary record. His conduct, the nature of his actions, and the sequence of events told a different story. For that reason, his statements were not accepted by the court as credible.
That ruling sent a clear message. The court is guided by evidence, not by declarations. And in this case, the facts spoke louder than any attempt at justification. And will face court today after he allegedly killed a Chinese student and dumped her body on the New South Wales Central Coast. >> He described it as a vile crime of extraordinary brutality and profound betrayal.
Her words were clear, steady, and deliberate. There was no exaggeration in her tone, just a cold, painful acknowledgement of what had happened. This was not just a crime. It was a deliberate act of violence marked by humiliation and cruelty. She emphasized that it was a depraved and sadistic act committed by a man who held a position of trust in relation to Ms.
Lang. This was someone who was welcomed into the home, someone who was trusted. He had access to her daily life, her space, her sense of security. And he used that trust as a weapon. What made it even more chilling was where it happened. It took place in what should have been her safe haven, the place where she lived, where she slept.
Where she should have felt protected from any outside threat. That private space became a trap. Her home became a crime scene. The judge’s remarks were not emotional outbursts. They were measured conclusions. They reflected not only the scale of the violence, but the depth of the betrayal.
And that betrayal of trust, of safety, of basic humanity is what makes this crime especially terrifying. Michelle Leng’s distraught mother, supported in court by the wife of the man accused of fatally stabbing her daughter, Michelle’s mother left court promising to speak publicly about her daughter tomorrow. Just what what kind of a person was she, then? A good person, like that. Like an angel. Yeah.
In China, her murder has made national headlines. There’s a lot of international students in Sydney, and their parents in China. So, they were really really concerned with this news. As those closest to her struggled to comprehend her violent death. Derek Barrett was sentenced to 46 years in prison. That was the final judgment, the number that summed up years of investigation, forensic analysis, and court proceedings.
It was read out clearly, without emotion. But the weight of it was undeniable. It meant decades behind bars. Decades measured out by the justice system as a response to what he had done. The court also set a minimum non-parole period of 34 years. Only after that time has passed can he apply for a review of his imprisonment conditions.
And that’s not a guarantee of release. It’s simply a formal possibility. The sentence reflected the court’s assessment of the seriousness of the crimes, their systematic nature, and their particular cruelty. The judge considered both the nature of his actions and the consequences. For the family, this marked the legal conclusion of the process.
But no sentence, no matter how long, can undo what happened. Look, first of all, if I could ask you to respect the privacy of the family. They’re very upset, and they’ll be leaving shortly, but they’ve uh they don’t want to say anything to the media at this uh at this point in time. I just like to say that the uh murder of uh Ms.
Leng was a horrendous, senseless murder that’s impacted on a lot of people’s lives. The courts have recognized the seriousness of the offense by the sentence that was handed uh down on Mr. Barrett. Anyone that heard the heard the facts of of what’s gone on, it was a horrendous matter, and the family are traumatized by what’s gone on. That’s all we’ve got to say.
Thank you. The case didn’t end there. Even after the sentencing, it became clear that the story had deeper, darker layers. The investigation revealed that his sexual obsession with her hadn’t appeared overnight. It had grown Year after year, boundaries blurred, fantasies became more obsessive, control more extreme.
This wasn’t some sudden snap. It was escalation. And a few years later, the case took an even more disturbing turn. In November 2019, an elderly woman confined to her home due to illness and dementia was sitting in her house. Her name has not been made public. She was in her kitchen, in a space that felt familiar and safe to her, when her daughter came to visit.
It was a routine visit, checking in, making sure her mom was okay. Just a normal day. >> >> Nothing about it hinted that it would become part of a criminal investigation. The daughter noticed her mother sitting at the kitchen table holding a small object. According to police, it was a durable, waterproof USB flash drive.
It looked simple, almost unremarkable. A small black casing, no labels, no markings. The elderly woman said she thought it was a toy. She couldn’t explain how it ended up in her possession. Because of her dementia, her memory was fragmented. She didn’t remember who might have brought it, or when, or why.
When the daughter plugged the USB into a computer, everything changed in seconds. What appeared on the screen was so shocking and disturbing that she immediately called the police. The device contained nine video files, totaling more than 1 hour, along with 13 photographs. The material was clear, organized.
It didn’t appear accidental or random. The footage showed Derek and Michelle. The camera captured him raping and torturing her while holding her captive in a room. The filming was deliberate, the angles controlled. This wasn’t blurry or incidental. It was documented violence. In one of the videos, Michelle’s hands were tied so tightly that they became swollen and purple.
The tape cut into her skin, restricting blood flow. You could see the color draining from her fingers. At one point, Derek cut the tape off with a large hunting knife. The blade flashed on camera. Then he tied her up again, and he said, “Now, where were we?” After that, he continued the assault.
This wasn’t some sudden chaotic outburst. It was a conscious continuation of violence step-by-step without pause. The events unfolded along the same tragic timeline, and each new detail only deepened the scale of the cruelty. It was also revealed that for a period of time before the murder, Derek had been secretly filming Michelle and his stepdaughter during moments of complete vulnerability.
The camera was running while they showered or slept, unaware they were being watched. These were ordinary, everyday situations, moments that should have been private, safe. In some of the recordings, he touched himself while watching them sleep. It showed calculated control, a total absence of boundaries.
Investigators were able to match some of that material with evidence they had already gathered. Among it were photographs identical to ones Derek had deleted from his phone just days before his arrest. He had erased them quickly, trying to wipe away the trail. It was an attempt to conceal the crimes, to destroy digital evidence, to leave fewer questions behind.
But digital footprints rarely disappear completely. Some of the files left traces, and those traces connected the fragments into one clear picture. The woman who was found with the USB drive had no confirmed connection to Derek, at least none that investigators were able to establish.
However, she lived just a few miles from a house he had previously occupied. That coincidence feels unsettling. How the device ended up with her remains unclear, and even today, that part of the case is still a mystery. One of those loose ends that refuses to fully close. As a result of everything discovered on that USB, 17 new charges were filed against him.
Each one was based on specific, documented material supported by forensic analysis. The charges included multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault and indecent acts. The list was long, and each count represented another layer of understanding of what had been happening behind closed doors. Police also noted that Michelle’s aunt spent a significant amount of time working in Wollongong.
She was often away from home and physically unable to see what was happening inside the house with her husband. Investigators stated that she was unaware. When the truth surfaced, >> >> her reaction was described as overwhelming guilt, heavy, exhausting, the kind that doesn’t let you sleep. When Michelle’s mother received the call about the USB drive and the material that had been found, she said she nearly fainted.
It felt like after everything she had already endured, it couldn’t possibly get worse. But then came more details, more evidence, more pain. Through tears, her voice shaking, she said, “When the police told me that the video showed my daughter being humiliated, raped, and painfully tortured, I was overwhelmed instantly.
I almost blacked out. My own mother, who had been healthy, experienced such deep grief that she passed away not long after receiving that news. How can any mother possibly accept something like that?” Derek Barrett pleaded guilty to all 17 additional charges. There were no prolonged denials this time, no dramatic declarations of innocence, no attempt to shift the blame.
Formally, it was a full admission. 17 separate counts, each one exposing layers of what had previously remained hidden. In the courtroom, it sounded procedural, dry, a few words followed by a list of offenses. But for the family, it wasn’t just legal terminology, it was another blow, another reopening of wounds they had already endured.
Each charge felt like a separate cut, like the pain was being replayed all over again. Despite the guilty plea, and to the family’s deep disappointment, he did not receive a new, separate sentence. Many had expected additional punishment, something distinct that would reflect the severity of these newly revealed crimes. The expectation seemed simple.
If new offenses come to light, there should be additional time. But the legal system operates within specific limits and sentencing principles. Unfortunately, under the structure of the sentence already imposed and the rules governing how terms are calculated, the court did not have grounds to create an entirely new sentence that would alter the overall balance of punishment.
There was very little room to maneuver, and that is another bitter layer of this case. Formally, the guilt was acknowledged. Formally, the charges were proven. But for those who lost the most, it didn’t bring closure. It was just another reminder that even inside a courtroom, relief isn’t always guaranteed.
A man who admitted killing his own niece has been sentenced for a second time after a USB stick was unearthed years after he was jailed. Judge went as far as saying if the full extent of his perverted crime was known in 2017, he would have been jailed for life. But that simply wasn’t possible now. The law doesn’t allow one to revisit a sentence that was imposed in 2017.
Because this evidence had not been discovered before the original murder trial began, the judge treated it as a new aggravating factor. These were materials that had remained outside the scope of the investigation and only surfaced after the sentence had already been handed down. In the courtroom, it felt like a cold reminder.
The story didn’t end with the first verdict. Some facts emerged later, and they only intensified the gravity of what had already been done. The judge imposed an additional 20 years of imprisonment. However, that term is to be served concurrently with the sentence for murder. So formally, those added years did not increase the overall length of incarceration.
It remains 46 years. At the same time, 2 years were added to the minimum non-parole period. That adjustment changed the timeline for parole eligibility under the structure of the sentence. The numbers sound dry, mechanical even. But behind them are lives, shattered futures, and judicial decisions that will forever remain part of legal history.
This is truly one of the most disturbing and devastating cases we have ever examined. Every detail leaves a heavy feeling. Michelle Lang was a hardworking, determined, hopeful young woman. Thousands of miles from home, she was building a new life. She wanted to grow, to gain experience, to create opportunities not just for herself, but for her mom.
Every step she took was intentional. Every day was a move towards stability and safety. She worked in a place she believed was secure. She lived among people she trusted. She believed she was surrounded by support, not betrayal. For Michelle’s mother, who first lost her husband and then lost her daughter at the hands of someone she once considered family, these were the darkest years of her life.
First one tragedy that shattered her heart, then another, even more painful, more horrifying, because it was unimaginable. Realizing that the danger had been so close, inside a circle of trust, makes that grief even deeper. Through tears, she said, “We still can’t accept, even today, that she’s no longer here with us.
We are still living in deep pain. Time will never go back to those days when Meng Mei and I lived happily together. Now that my child is gone, my whole life feels destroyed. What is going to become of me?”
