Ex-husband’s relatives charged in Hong Kong model’s slaying
Two people were charged with murder, and one with “perverting the course of justice,” on Sunday in the grisly death of a young woman this month in Hong Kong. All three were the victim’s former in-laws, police said.
The three suspects, who were arrested Friday, were relatives of the victim’s ex-husband, whom police identified by the surname Kwong: His father, 65, and older brother, 31, were charged with murder. His mother, 63, was charged with perverting the course of justice. Their case will be heard at court on Monday morning.
Police said they caught Kwong, 28, at a pier on Saturday in what seemed to be an attempt to flee by speedboat. Kwong was held for questioning but had not been charged as of Sunday morning. He was carrying large amounts of cash and luxury watches, local media reported.
Abby Choi, a 28-year-old model, was reported missing last Wednesday. A police spokesman reached Sunday morning would not confirm her identity as the woman killed, but she has been widely identified in local media.
On Friday, police found body parts in an apartment near Tai Po, in Hong Kong’s outlying New Territories. Authorities seized various tools for slicing and grinding meat, and an electric saw.
Speaking to journalists in front of the crime scene, police said the apartment had been rented recently and was unfurnished except for tarps on the walls and windows. They said they suspected a financial dispute between the victim and the suspects.
About 100 rescuers and divers, including from a police special unit known as the Flying Tigers, are still searching for the rest of the remains.
Choi had recently appeared on the front cover of L’Officiel Monaco and in Vogue China. Her Instagram page is filled with condolences from fans.
Although Hong Kong has a low crime rate, it has a history of gruesome murders, particularly of female victims by male partners.
In 2020, Cheung Kie-chung, a University of Hong Kong professor, was found guilty of murdering his wife in 2018. Her body was found in a suitcase on the school’s campus. In 2016, British banker Rurik Jutting was found guilty of murdering two Indonesian women he lured to his luxury apartment in 2014. He admitted to torturing one of the women before stuffing her body in a suitcase.
Both men are serving life sentences, which are mandatory for murder convictions in Hong Kong.
Most perpetrators of violence against Hong Kong women are men, and the majority are known to their victims, according to a survey published by Lingnan University in 2022.