Opinion | Spate of murder cases shocks Hong Kong: 'What has the world come to?'

Three grisly murder cases in as many days have sent chills through the city, which has one of the lowest rates of homicide in the world - which last year saw just 27 murder investigations.

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Police escort a murder suspect on Saturday in the case of a dismembered elderly couple in Tai Kok Tsui. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 1:18pm, 18 Mar 2013Updated: 10:57pm, 18 Mar 2013

Three grisly murder cases in as many days have sent chills through the city, which has one of the lowest rates of homicide in the world (last year saw 27 murder investigations).

The high-profile stories have people scratching their heads and questioning "What has the world come to?"

The spate of cases started when the dismembered bodies of an elderly couple were found in a Tai Kok Tsui flat. A 29-year-old man and an accomplice were charged on Friday with the murder of the couple, his parents, over a financial dispute.

Just a day later an 18-year-old was accused of stabbing his father to death and seriously wounded his mother at his home in Pat Heung village, Yuen Long, after a dispute over the son’s habit of playing computer games. A 19-year-old suspected accomplice was also charged in the case.

On Sunday, a 47-year-old woman apparently jumped to her death from a Kowloon West luxury apartment after she allegedly killed and attempted to behead her partner, police say.

The deaths have sparked widespread social media debate on topics including Hong Kong's social dislocation, inequality, poverty, poor parenting and internet addiction. Some pointed to moral decay and a society-wide obsession with wealth. Others also cautioned not to turn the situation into a moral panic.