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SCMP Reporter

THE brutal murder of a Macau prostitute, whose butchered body was dumped in a busy street in broad daylight, may have been the work of a serial killer.

  The remains of Wong Lai-meng, 41, were left in a rubbish skip in one of Macau's busiest streets 11 days ago. The murderer had cut up the corpse, washed the limbs and wrapped them in plastic bags.

  Now the Sunday Morning Post has learned that Macau police are still probing three other murders that are strikingly similar to Wong's death.

  On August 31, 1988, a woman's remains were found near the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Taipa Island.

  On April 24, 1991, another woman's body was found floating in the Outer Harbour, near the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

  And on April 3 this year, police found the naked body of a woman in the Coloane countryside. The victim had multiple wounds.

  Exhaustive inquiries into the latest killing have so far left police baffled and they have now appealed to their counterparts in Hong Kong and China.

  ''This was a sadistic killing which sickens me,'' said Jose Azedo, the assistant director of Macau's serious crime squad.

  ''The investigation is still in its early days so we must, naturally, keep all our options open.

  ''We are eager to catch whoever was responsible but there are a number of things with this case that do not add up.''   Mr Azedo refused to disclose further details of the unsolved murders, saying he did not want to be accused of scaremongering. But he would not rule out the possibility that they were committed by the same person.

  Wong was known to have a gambling problem and had borrowed heavily from loan sharks, but Mr Azedo did not believe they were responsible for the murder.

  ''She owed $200,000 which is not a great amount to these men,'' he said. ''If they had wanted to kill her they would not have gone to so much bother, it would have been a quick execution and the body would have been hidden.''   The biggest problem facing officers is finding a motive. They now believe Wong may have travelled to Hong Kong to get married just weeks before her death, but they have little else to go on.

  Mr Azedo said the expert way in which Wong's body had been cut up suggested her death was the work of a doctor or butcher.

  ''The body had been chopped at joints and the parts washed to prevent further bleeding or to stop the corpse from smelling,'' he said.

  ''Judging by the way the victim was dismembered you would have thought the killer did not want the body to be identified - but he left the hands.''   A beggar found the body while rummaging through rubbish outside the Banco Comercial de Macau in the busy Avenida Almirante Lacerda.

  A police search found other severed limbs and the crown of her skull wrapped in shopping bags. Her face, torso, right thigh and internal organs are still missing.

  However, Wong was identified within hours because she had recently applied for a certificate of non-criminal conviction and had submitted her fingerprints.

  One theory says the killer is from the mainland where the police tend not to rely on fingerprints for identification.

  Talking to Wong's former associates and colleagues, the Sunday Morning Post pieced together a profile of a sad figure whose life was full of tragedy.

  Wong was born in Hoi Peng, Guangdong Province, and came to Macau when she was 21 to work as a teacher.

  She worked at the Chinese language school, Escola Pui Tou, in Rua da Praia Grande, until 1991 when she left in mysterious circumstances.

  She then became an accountant at the Macau Baptist School before being fired a year later for embezzling funds to finance her gambling addiction.

  Desperate and penniless, Wong became a prostitute, touring the casinos.

  She also worked as a masseuse at the New Century Hotel Sauna. ''She had more than 100 clients during her time here,'' sauna manager Jacky Ho said.

  ''Nobody got to know her very well because she was quiet. She would work, sleep in the rooms and then gamble all night - she was a big gambler.

  ''She told us she was never officially married but under local Chinese customs she had three husbands.

  ''Two of her husbands died and another ran away to the United States after stealing $100,000 from her,'' Mr Ho said.

  ''She became very sad and this is when I think she started to gamble.''   Wong quit her job at the New Century in early May.

  ''She left on good terms but said she was going to Hong Kong to get married in the New Territories,'' Mr Ho said.

  ''The last I heard, she was seen gambling in the Holiday Inn and the Lisboa the night before she died.''   Maureen Kwok, the pastor at Macau Baptist School, said: ''One of her husbands died of cancer and her mother died soon after. This was when she started gambling.

  ''It is a very sad story because she seemed to have a good background, I heard she had borrowed money from loan sharks.''   The place where Wong's body was left is like any busy high street: Cars and mopeds cram the roads and hundreds of people bustle past each other on the pavements. Just a stone's throw away is the district police station.

  None of the shopkeepers would talk about the murder and turned their backs when the victim's name was mentioned. It was a similar situation with her old associates, Mr Azedo said.

  ''But we need to speak to everyone who knew Wong Lai-meng if we are to catch her killer,'' he said.



Serial killer theory links unsolved deaths