Serpentine body is ‘Imperial student’ Yen Zhen Anthony Soh

Published: 8th April, 2011
by JOSH LOEB

A BODY pulled from the Serpentine in Hyde Park on Wednesday is believed to be that of a missing student from Paddington, police said yesterday (Thursday).

Officers said they were awaiting formal identification but thought the dead man was 18-year-old Imperial College student Yen Zhen Anthony Soh, known as Anthony, who was last seen on Tuesday March 22 socialising with friends at the campus in South Kensington. 

Minutes later, CCTV captured him turning into Kensington Gore towards Harrods.

Friends alerted police after the first-year mechanical engineering student, whose family have said he suffered from mental health issues, failed to appear for lectures the following day.

Fellow students at Imperial have paid tribute to Mr Soh on a Facebook page created to help publicised the search for him.

Antony Patrick Tills, who knew Mr Soh through martial arts classes he attended, said he was “saddened and shocked” by the news.

He said: “I have known him and his brothers for years. What happened? 

“How did this happen?”

Another message on the site read: “Rest in Peace Anthony Soh, You were one in a million, and loved by so many.”   

Police said they are not treating the death as suspicious at this time.

A police spokesman said: “Officers were called to reports of a body in the Serpentine, Hyde Park, at 11.52 on Wednesday April 6. The Marine Policing Unit recovered the body from the water. 

“While officers await formal identification they believe it to be that of Anthony Soh. 

“Anthony was last seen on Tuesday, March 22, at approx 23.00 hrs in the grounds of Imperial College, London, where he had been socialising with friends.”