Schoolgirl, 16, forced to stand naked in corner over exam grade then stabs mum to death

In a case that divided public opinion, a 16-year-old girl was sentenced in an adult court after she stabbed her mother to death.

Esmie Tseng was a gifted honour student from Overland Park, Kansas who consistently achieved high grades. She was also ranked as one of the top classical pianists for her age range in the state, and was a talented athlete.

She wrote an online blog about how miserable she was trying to live up to her parents’, who were Chinese immigrants, expectations of her. Just over a week before the horrific incident she included a post about making her mum an anklet - it was her last entry.

"It made me feel so childish, but I suppose that's really what all parents want," she wrote. "I've been trying... to make them smile, make them feel better, take Esmie off their list of worries and concerns."

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Ten days later, Esmie murdered her 55 year old mother Shu Yi Zhang. The gruesome incident apparently took place in several rooms of their home. Esmie was arrested and taken into custody on the same day - 19 August 2005.

Local father Jacob Horwitz, whose children went to summer camp with her, first heard of Esmie on the news when he saw she had been arrested on suspicion of murder. He said his kids couldn’t believe it was the same "sweet" girl they had met who was "easy to get along with".

Reeling from the shock, which had also stunned the middle class community they lived in, Jacob started researching her online and came across Esmie’s weblog. "I spent the next three or four hours reading her site," he told the BBC. "From the moment I finished reading, I felt there was much more than you saw on the news."

Entries on her blog which she had been writing for three years detailed how she would be severely punished if her parents felt she had let them down. Her journals talk of their "impossible standards" and how she was disciplined for only scoring 96 per cent in an exam and made to stand in the corner of the room naked. She also claimed they had threatened to sell her piano if she didn't win a competition. Jacob said he remembers thinking at the time: "It's a shame that another parent didn't see this yesterday. It's a cry for help."

Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison successfully managed to get Esmie tried as an adult rather than a juvenile in a move that shocked many in the community who supported her. "Hacking somebody to death with a butcher knife is about as serious as it gets. Even though everybody agrees she had been cruelly treated by her mother, it does not remotely excuse the level of violence," he said, adding: "People have to remember that she committed an incredibly heinous crime. I refuse to buy into this thing that she is a babe in the woods who is going to get victimised [in prison]."

Esmie pleaded guilty in an adult court to voluntary manslaughter on 6 March 2006, a month before her 17th birthday and was sentenced to serve a minimum of eight years behind bars. She became the youngest woman at Topeka Correctional Facility.

Few details about the murder were released but there was talk her recreational drug use had played a part in the incident. However, a toxicology report at the time didn’t show anything up, according to Crime Monthly magazine.

Her father Tao Tseng refused to condemn his daughter saying he didn’t want to lose her as well as his wife. Esmie was released from prison in 2012 and is thought to be in employment.