Ha Thuy Linh, the 43-year-old Vietnamese tea businesswoman who was found dead for an unknown cause in China on Tuesday, might have been poisoned, a Vietnamese diplomatic agency in China said.

The woman, who was director of Ha Linh O Long Tea Company in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, left Vietnam for the Chinese province of Guangzhou on September 19 on a business trip, and was found dead three days later.

The company was informed of the death of its director by the Chinese Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City on September 22.

There were many bruises on Linh’s body, while her pancreas and spleen was damaged, lawyer Truong Quang Quy said on Friday, citing an undated notice a Vietnamese diplomatic agency in China has sent to Linh’s family.

The lawyer is the legal counselor of Ha Linh O Long Tea Co.

The notice also said that Linh might have been poisoned, according to Quy.

The businesswoman had allegedly been accompanied by a friend of hers before she died, according to the Vietnamese diplomatic agency.

In the meanwhile, Chinese police said Linh might have been robbed before the murder.

The cause of the death remained unknown, according to Chinese police.

Linh’s family has tried to contact Chinese police but they refused to provide information and said that they would only work with the Vietnamese diplomatic agency about the case, Quy said.

As the family has yet to receive Linh’s body, her company has sent a document through the Lam Dong Department of External Relations to Chinese authorities asking for help in bringing it back to Vietnam as soon as possible, according to the lawyer.

The department has earlier contacted Vietnam’s diplomatic representative office in China to seek more information on Linh’s death, according to Tran Thanh Hoai, deputy director of the department.

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