Boyfriend Of Dead Model Says She Didn't Mind Shanghai Bar Work

The boyfriend of a young model from B.C.'s Saltspring Island who was found dead in Shanghai said Tuesday she may have been unhappy, but not because of her work as a dancer in local bars.

Diana O'Brien's family learned on Monday that her body had been found by Chinese police. Few details about her death have been released by authorities in Canada or China.

She had been in China since mid-June after landing a contract with a modelling agency in Shanghai. On Monday, O'Brien's friends said she didn't like working in Shanghai and had bought an airline ticket and planned to return to B.C. in two weeks, after finishing her final assignment.

But her boyfriend of five years, Joel Berry, said that if O'Brien did want to come home before the end of her three-month contract, it was because she was lonely in Shanghai and not because of concerns about the kind of work she was doing.

Other friends have told the media O'Brien was unhappy with the work promoting a whiskey brand by dancing on podiums in bars, and that was why she wanted to come home.

Her friends have since denied earlier reports that O'Brien was required to dance partially nude, saying she would have refused any sort of questionable work.

"[She was] definitely not being pressured by the agency to do any type of jobs that she didn't want to do. If she didn't want to do any jobs, she was able to turn them down without any problems," said Berry.

Modelling industry booming in China

An agent who places Canadian models in China said she has never experienced problems, but noted the industry is changing quickly.

Antonella Mainella, who is in charge of international bookings with Folio Montreal, said she works with two established agencies in Shanghai, but could easily work with dozens more as the industry in China is mushrooming.

"I have e-mails every single day, [from] new agencies that have come up … So we are very, very careful with that," said Mainella.

"If it's not an agency we've worked with in the past, or that we have a relationship with, or that we've met personally, I do not place the girls," she said.

Mainella said models and Canadian agencies should make sure they check the reputation of agencies in China before agreeing to take jobs there.

Waiting for news

Meanwhile, it's been a very difficult 24 hours for O'Brien's boyfriend who met her on the free dating site Devil Called Love.

"I just loved her so much. I still do love her so much. It's a little surreal at this point," Berry told CBC News Tuesday morning.

Berry and O'Brien's other friends and family are desperate for more news from the authorities.

RCMP confirmed Monday that they notified a Saltspring Island family of a death but refused to divulge any details or say whether the young woman was a victim of a homicide. Police would only say they were investigating her death.

Berry said he has been told an autopsy will soon take place, which he hopes will reveal how his girlfriend died.

O'Brien began modelling locally more than a year ago and a stint in Milan was her first big break, friends said.