Security guards in the lobby of the Sun Tuen Mun Centre. Photo: Edward Wong
Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-law-and-crime/article/2151322/hong-kong-couple-and-daughter-found-dead Law and Crime
Hong Kong couple and daughter found dead in possible murder-suicide in Sun Tuen Mun Centre flat
Father and mother found with stab wounds as daughter discovered with plastic bag over her head on Monday afternoon
The bodies were found in the Sun Tuen Mun Centre. Photo: Edward Wong
Hong Kong police are investigating a suspected murder-suicide after a couple and their adult daughter were found dead in their New Territories home on Monday afternoon.
The three bodies were discovered in different bedrooms of the flat in the Sun Tuen Mun Centre housing estate on Lung Mun Road, Tuen Mun.
The man, 60, and wife, 56, were found dead with stab wounds to their bodies. Their 23-year-old daughter was discovered with a plastic bag over her head which was connected by a metre-long pipe to a helium gas canister.
Police said she had left behind a suicide note detailing her suffering from eczema which left her feeling “better dead than alive”.
A 30cm bloodstained knife was also found in the kitchen, a police source said.
Another source believed that the daughter killed her parents before committing suicide by inhaling helium. Toxicology examinations would be carried out to establish whether the parents were drugged before being stabbed to death, the source added.
Yan Fong-wai, assistant Tuen Mun district commander, said the daughter was found dead leaning on the door of her room. The father, a retiree, was discovered dead in the bedroom of their eldest daughter, who was on a business trip in mainland China. The mother, a housewife, was found dead in her room wrapped in a blanket.
The three had been dead for about 24 hours.
The daughter was a graduate of a tertiary institution.
Uniformed officers guarded the flat at 5.30pm as detectives from the Tuen Mun district crime squad gathered evidence.
Police were called to the flat after a male relative tried to visit the family at about 3pm and found the door was locked.
The source said the relative feared for the safety of the couple and their daughter because they did not attend Father’s Day gatherings over the weekend.
Firefighters broke into the flat and found the bodies inside.
The family had no record of domestic violence.
Yesterday’s grisly discovery could add to the number of murder-suicide cases in the city.
This year, a Hong Kong woman whose husband killed himself in January took her own life and that of her nine-year-old son.
Au Wai-man, 45, and the boy were found dead on February 27 after inhaling charcoal fumes in a car on On Yiu Street, Sha Tin.
Police said Au was devastated by the death of her husband.
Her husband, Hung Ka-kit, 41, who operated a logistics company in Fo Tan, hanged himself in his office on January 8.
Police said he ended his life because his business was failing.
People who are distressed or in need of support can contact the Samaritan Befrienders’ 24-hour hotline on 2389 2222; the Suicide-Prevention Services on 2382 0000; or the Society for the Promotion of Hospice Care on 2868 1211. A hotline for those who have lost a loved one to suicide is available at 2382 2737.