A divorced woman who was released from a mental hospital on Tuesday was found dead in her Tsz Wan Shan flat with her two teenage children yesterday in what police say could be a murder-suicide.
Lau Hoi-chu, 42, was found hanged and her son and daughter, Law Chun-yan 17, and Law Yu-ching, 13, had apparently been strangled.
They are thought to have died late on Wednesday night, a little more than 24 hours after Lau was released from Kwai Chung Hospital where she had been under treatment since November 6. The bodies were found by Lau's sister-in-law in the flat on Tsz Lok Estate at about 10am.
A shocked woman neighbour said she had no idea Lau had mental problems. 'They were just like a normal family, but they seldom talked to neighbours,' she said.
Assistant Wong Tai Sin district commander (crime), Superintendent Kevin Sin Chi-sing, said police were treating the case as dead bodies found and were looking into all possibilities including murder-suicide.
He said the findings of an autopsy to be carried out today would give a clearer picture, adding that tests were needed to find out whether drugs had been used in the case.
Police said the 45-year-old sister-in-law, who found the bodies in the 14th-floor flat in Lok On House, had been taking the family food, and caring for Lau because of her mental illness.
