The Post revisits Hong Kong’s horrific history of killing and dismemberment as city stunned by brutal murder of young model and socialite
- Hong Kong is listed as one of the safest cities in the world – but it has not been totally free of gruesome killings over the years
- The Post remembers some of the killings that shocked the public over almost a quarter of a century
The murder and dismemberment of a 28-year-old model and socialite – whose head, torso and hands were on Saturday still missing – has sent shock waves through Hong Kong, a city with the reputation of being one the safest cities in the world.
But the city has not been entirely free of violent death and here the Post recaps some of the most horrendous cases of violent death and dismemberment in Hong Kong’s history.
The gruesome killing of a wealthy model and socialite (2023)
Abby Choi Tin-fung, a 28-year-old model and fashion influencer, vanished without a trace on Tuesday.
A missing person’s inquiry turned into a murder investigation after police found parts of her body inside a refrigerator in a village house in Tai Po’s Lung Mei Tsuen.
A meat grinder, an electric saw and two soup pots containing human tissue, along with two types of meat cleaver, a hammer, other tools and face shields, were also found in the flat.
The authorities had yet to find the victim’s head, torso and hands on Saturday after a major police search at a water catchment area and a nearby slope at Tseung Kwan O cemetery.
Choi’ ex-husband, her former brother-in-law and former parents-in-law have been arrested in connection with the killing.
A source familiar with the case said early police inquiries had linked the murder to a dispute over the handling of a luxury property.
Son who killed and dismembered parents found guilty of gruesome Hong Kong double murder
A son’s murder of his parents (2013)
Henry Chau Hoi-leung killed his parents at a rental flat in Tai Kok Tsui in 2013 and got friend Angus Tse Chun-kei to help dispose of the bodies.
Chau, 29 at the time, was caught after he sent texts to friends confessing to the killings after he filed a missing persons’ report to police and made an online plea for the public to help in the search for his parents.
The couple’s heads and salted body parts in three plastic boxes were found in the refrigerator in Tse’s flat in Tai Kok Tsui two weeks after they were killed.
Forensic officers reported that they believed the body parts had been cooked, microwaved and salted.
Some of the remains were decaying when they were found.
Chau told police he blamed his parents for his failure in life and love and that he hated them.
He was found guilty of the double murders and jailed for life in 2015.
Tse was also sentenced to a year in prison for prevention of the lawful burials of bodies.
The shocking case inspired the 2022 movie The Sparring Partner.
The tragic death of a 16-year-old girl (2008)
Kiki Wong Ka-mui, a 16-year-old compensated dating girl, was strangled to death and dismembered in April 2008 by Ting Kai-tai after a liaison at a flat in Sham Shui Po.
Ting, then 28, was arrested after a friend turned him in to police in early May.
The teenager’s flesh and organs were cut into pieces and flushed down a toilet and the head and some body parts tied to bricks and thrown in the sea.
A bag containing some of her bones was dumped at a refuse collection point at the nearby Shek Kip Mei market, with some said to have been sold to the public as pork bones.
Ting told a murder trial the horrific crime was committed while he was under the influence of drugs.
He was sentenced to life for the killing, as well as to four years for prevention of the lawful burial of the girl’s body in 2009.
The case inspired the award-winning 2015 Hong Kong movie Port of Call.
The ‘Hello Kitty’ torture and killing (1999)
In a horrific case dubbed the “Hello Kitty” killing, 23-year-old nightclub hostess Fan Man-yee was kidnapped and tortured for more than a month by three triad members before she died and had her skull stuffed inside a Hello Kitty mermaid doll.
Fan was abducted and held at a flat in Granville Road in Tsim Sha Tsui after the trio thought she had stolen HK$4,000 (US$510) from a wallet belonging to one of the men.
The men cut up the body after she died, boiled the flesh to hide the smell of decomposition and threw other body parts into the trash.
But they kept her skull and sewn it into the head of a giant Hello Kitty stuffed toy.
Hello Kitty killers jailed for life
The killing was reported to police by a 13-year-old girl, the lover of one of men, who said she was haunted by the memory of taking part in and watching Fan’s weeks of torment and the disposal of her body.
Police found the young woman’s decomposed heart, lungs, liver and intestines in a plastic bag dumped on a canopy below the Granville Road flat.
The three men were sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter, false imprisonment and prevention of Fan’s lawful burial, but one had his sentence reduced to 18 years after a retrial.
Mr Justice Peter Nguyen told the three as he passed sentence: ‘Never in Hong Kong in recent years has a court heard evidence of such cruelty, depravity, callousness, brutality, violence and viciousness.’
