The naked body of a mainland prostitute, her throat slashed, was found in a subdivided flat in Yau Ma Tei yesterday.
Police are looking for her husband - who they suspect married Lau Suk-king, 49, in a fake union - and her regular customers. They believe she was killed by someone she knew.
"Investigations indicate she was killed in a sudden attack," a police source said. "The victim was nude at the time of the attack and there was no apparent sign of struggling. We suspect she knew the killer. The wounds were deep and wide - one was about 13cm long and exposed her throat."
She had suffered multiple chop wounds to her neck.
Thousands of dollars were taken from the flat. The source said it was possible Lau was killed while trying to stop someone stealing the money.
Police were called to the second-floor flat in Shanghai Street at about 11am when her neighbour found the door half opened and Lau dead on a blood-soaked mattress. Lau was understood to have usually taken clients to a nearby sex hotel, but friends told police that she sometimes took men home.