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Dog food was still scattered around a small, silver bowl Saturday afternoon, and a red Jetta sat parked at the edge of the driveway. A newly-finished ramp leads up to the house, where a bouquet of purple and white flowers lay on the steps.
"Dani," read the attached note, "Thank you for all your passion, dedication and loving personal attention. You brought forth the best performance of my life. I know your incredibly gifted musical heart will fill yet another world with beauty."
Students, friends and family of Danielle Martin, a UT piano professor, are still reeling from the news of her violent death Thursday night.
"It's going to be a long time before life resumes a normal pattern in the School of Music," said B. Glenn Chandler, the school's director.
Police charged Jackson Fan Chun Ngai, a 22-year-old graduate student in the School of Music, with Martin's murder Friday afternoon. Officials said he used a meat cleaver to kill her and claimed a computer chip was embedded in her brain. Ngai is being held in the Travis County Jail with bail set at $1 million.
Police and friends said Ngai helped care for Martin, 56, by running errands and doing various chores. Martin was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis about a year-and-a-half ago and used a scooter to get around, said UT spokesman Don Hale. Ngai often helped Martin get to and from campus, he said.
Ngai previously attended the University of Hawaii in Manoa and met Martin last semester, when he enrolled in the University's two-year master's degree program in piano.
Ngai came to depend on Martin, whom students described as warm and motherly, and she came to depend on his help.
"He was very close to her," said Bruno Longarini, a music school spokesman.
Another student in Martin's studio said Martin often mentioned Ngai, chatting about what a talented pianist he is and how much she cared for him.
"She loved Jackson a lot," said Ju Kyung Kim, an applied music graduate student.
Kim said Martin asked her to pray for Ngai, because "he was not in good condition about three weeks ago."
Ngai was "kind of disoriented," Kim said. "He was not like a normal person. But [Martin] took care of him very much. She understood."
Ngai had been hospitalized for mental illness and was either discharged on April 20 or left against medical orders, county Probate Judge Guy Herman told the Austin American-Statesman.
The affidavit states that Martin died at approximately 9:16 p.m.
Police arrived 29 minutes after the 911 call, and when Ngai answered the door, the officer noted fresh blood on his chin and the right side of his neck. Ngai remained very calm, police said.
"He wasn't combative to them. ... He was answering questions, talking to the officer about checking on the victim, making sure she's OK," Dahlstrom said.
The affidavit says Ngai kept repeating, "computer chip, computer chip," to the officer before trying to close the door. When an officer asked who had the computer chip, Ngai answered, "Professor Martin." Two other officers arrived before police entered the residence.
Ngai walked toward the kitchen area, and the officers followed. One said she saw a pair of bloody legs lying on the floor, and Ngai pointed at Martin's body. He then turned around and brandished a meat cleaver.
"He refused to drop it, and at that time, [the police officers] tasered him," Dahlstrom said.
According to the affidavit, Ngai collapsed into a fetal position on top of Martin's body, and an officer tasered him again as other officers approached to secure Ngai.
Multiple bloody cutting instruments other than the meat cleaver surrounded Martin's body. The officer also noticed a handwritten note resting on top of the body, which read, "Computer chip in brain."
Medical examiners said Martin died because of multiple stabbing, cutting and chopping wounds to the head and torso.
"There was more than one mark on her that had caused her death," Dahlstrom said.
Shock and horror resounded in the music building Friday as the news swept the halls. Martin, a popular and respected professor, headed the piano and keyboard division. Administrators hastily called an afternoon meeting with the entire school and the school's dean, Glenn Chandler, met privately with each of Martin's students, Longarini said.
"Before this happened, I didn't know how much she meant in my life. After her death, I've felt terrible. From yesterday, I've been kind of aimless," said Kim, one of Martin's graduate students. "I'm really sorry that I didn't express how much I respected her, how much I loved her."
Kim said Martin was "like a mother," gentle and close to all her students. Studio is not like a typical class, because students meet with their professors individually, she said.
"So we can talk about our private life or music or everything," Kim said. "It's not like other professor and student relationships."
Martin knew more about her students than most people and tended to serve as not only a musical mentor but as "an adviser in life," Chandler said.
Her office door Saturday echoed snippets of her life: photographs of a dog and cat, a roster of her studio students and information about next year's prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Pinned to the notice board was a drooping pink rose and a note on which someone scribbled, "God bless you and keep you always."
She was critically acclaimed as a solo recitalist, chamber musician, instrumental and vocal collaborator and orchestral soloist, according to her biography on the UT Web site. She began teaching at the University in 1972 and also taught and performed throughout the country, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Korea and Jamaica.
She co-founded and directed musical AIDS fund-raisers in Austin.
Chandler said that the school offered Martin's students the option of delaying their final exam.
"We said as soon as they felt like thinking about it, they could think about other teachers and consider who they might want to study with," he said. "But she's been here a long time. Obviously that leaves a huge hole."
As Kim cried on the phone, she repeated her disbelief at what transpired just hours after her last private lesson with Martin on Thursday afternoon.
"I still can't believe she's not here," she said.
University officials are planning a memorial ceremony for later in the week, Chandler said. Martin's family has scheduled funeral services for Monday in New York.
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