Out of respect, they delayed it for 24 hours. Then they waited until the last available slot at the Kowloon mortuary yesterday before conducting an autopsy on 74-year-old Au Yeung Wan-shing, just in case a relative or friend came forward to identify him.
Of course, nobody came. After all, nobody came for Au Yeung for up to five months while he lay dead on the floor of his home in Sha Kok Mei, before being thrown out with the rubbish when a labourer was hired to clear out the apparently deserted home.
The lonely death of Au Yeung is a startling illustration of how once-strong New Territories village communities have been disintegrated by urbanisation. Young families have moved into the city, while the old and the vulnerable are left behind.
Au Yeung had family in Hong Kong. The landlord who let him live rent-free in the simple two-bedroom home was a distant relative, and there were names and phone numbers among his belongings that police officers have been ringing. The numbers are all long dead.
More disturbingly, Au Yeung had neighbours. They lived 20 metres from his front door, but did nothing to check up on him all through the summer when he failed to emerge from his home on the edge of the densely populated village.
It was only last week when a labourer picked up his body, along with the rest of the contents of the home, and hurled it down a wooded bank outside that Au Yeung's death was discovered. Police were yesterday still trying to trace the labourer, a mainland visitor.