The popular Shanghai crime news show Dongfang 110 aired footage Wednesday of 18-year-old Chen Jun describing the July murder of Diana O'Brien. The show is produced by Shanghai's police force and focuses on actual crime investigations.
The video that aired appeared to be from Chen's police interrogation.
Police contacted Friday had no further comment.
O'Brien (22) had been in Shanghai for just two weeks on a short-term modeling contract when her body was found July 7 in a pool of blood in a stairwell of her apartment building.
Four days later, police announced they had arrested Chen in his nearby home province of Anhui carrying items from the apartment O'Brien shared with roommates. Police said Chen confessed to killing O'Brien.
The killing of a foreigner so close to next month's Beijing Olympic Games shocked a city that prides itself as being China's most modern.
"While I wasn't looking, she hit me and knocked me to the floor," Chen said.
He said he took out a knife and stabbed her. When she ran out of the apartment screaming, he said he stabbed her again in the stairwell, fearing the neighbors would come out to look.
In the interview, Chen said after the stabbing he left the apartment building empty-handed but came back a few hours later to get the laptop so he could sell it and have money to return to Anhui.
One of millions of migrant workers in Shanghai, Chen told the interviewer he lost his job at a teahouse near O'Brien's apartment in June and needed money to get home.
When Chen was arrested, police said they found money, jewelry, mobile phones and a digital camera from the apartment.
Police have not said when Chen's trial will start. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
