I read about the murder of Canadian model Diana O’Brien a few days ago, and it’s been lingering in the back of my mind ever since. Her senseless killing (at the hands of an 18-year-old petty thief) was bad enough, but when you find out just what she was doing during her short two-weekresidence in Shanghai, China it just compounds the tragedy.

The modeling agency she worked for in Shanghai, JH Model Management looks to have been less than legit - the owner is nowhere to be found, nor is the website which has mysteriously vanished. During her tenure in Shanghai she apparently did very little modeling; I’ve heard it reported that she was dancing at clubs and other less-than-appealing work, and at the time of her death was getting ready to cut her stint short and head back to Canada.

If there is a silver lining to this sordid situtation it is that her death may shed light on Shanghai’s shadowy modeling industry - which according to this MSNBC story can lead to some pretty sticky situations for naive hopefuls.

“So many agencies send girls here without really knowing,” said Marion Dorel, a former model from France who spent 13 years in the business in China. “Be careful, clients can ask for weird things — to sleep with them, to sleep with their clients, to go to karaoke. Of course you can say ‘no,’ but it’s not a nice situation.”

One Shanghai casting call asked for models to strip to their underwear and jump on a trampoline while being filmed, said Jeremy Stockton Johnson, a fashion photographer who said he also has been asked if models are available to strip at parties.

Worse cases include agencies that take away a model’s passport or withhold payment until the end of a contract.

Other links about the Diana O’Brien Case:

DANGEROUS DRAGON - Fast changing China may have swept Canadian model Diana O’Brien away

Model business - Do your homework before signing anything, advise local experts in light of B.C. model’s death