Hong Kong woman accused of smothering husband to death with quilt, mattress faces murder charge
- The suspect, a 52-year-old mother, re-enacted the alleged crime as part of an investigation into whether the killing was premeditated, a source says
- Victim Herman Chung, 62, was the former representative of Chai Kek Village
A 52-year-old woman accused of smothering her husband to death with a quilt in a village house in Hong Kong over the weekend is set to face one count of murder in court on Tuesday after being charged by police.
Police laid a holding charge against the woman hours after she was escorted back to the family home to reconstruct the alleged crime. According to the force, the case would be mentioned at Fanling Court on Tuesday morning.
The woman, the mother of a 13-year-old boy, was arrested after her 62-year-old husband, Herman Chung He-man, was found dead at their Tai Po village home shortly after 11.30pm on Saturday. Chung was the former representative of Chai Kek Village.
“An initial examination suggested that the man had been dead for at least two to four days before being discovered,” an insider said.
Preliminary investigations revealed Chung had fallen while fixing a bedframe in the house sometime last week before he was pinned under the frame and a mattress and then covered with other items such as a quilt to suffocate him, according to the source.
Officers were waiting for the results of a postmortem examination to ascertain the cause of his death, the insider added.
The source said the couple’s son was sent to live with a family friend about two weeks ago.