Missing head of Hong Kong Model Abby Choi found in soup pot

Mangalore Today News Network / News18

Hong Kong, Mar 01, 2023: Partial remains, including a skull, hair and several ribs, believed to be Hong Kong model Abby Choi, were found in the fridge and soup pots of a seaside house, police said. The gruesome murder of the 28-year-old influencer has gained broad interest after dismembered body parts were found in a refrigerator.

 

A skull and several ribs believed to belong to the victim were discovered in a large soup pot seized from the property in Lung Mei Tsuen on Friday. According to superintendent Alan Chung, the head had ‘no skin or meat on it’ and was boiled till only her skull remained, reported the Times of London.

A forensic examination found a hole at the back of the skull that could be evidence of a fatal attack.

Police had on Monday stated that they were “looking for the head" of the deceased after her limbs were discovered inside a refrigerator of a village house set up as a butchery site. “Two pots of stew believed to contain human tissue" were left at the scene, officials had said.

On Tuesday morning, officers wearing protective gear went to North East New Territories Landfill in Ta Kwu Ling, about a 15-minute drive from mainland China, to search for the missing body parts. Police had said earlier they were locating her hands and torso.

The massive operation, comprising over 100 police personnel, was ordered after a review of security camera footage on Monday near the crime scene in a Tai Po village allegedly showed a suspect moving bags from the flat where parts of her body were found to a nearby refuse collection area, reported South China Morning Post.

Disappearance of Abby Choi

With more than 100,000 followers on Instagram, Choi disappeared on February 21, according to a report filed later with the Hong Kong Police. Her last post was on February 19, featuring a photoshoot she had done with the fashion magazine L’Officiel Monaco.

“We believe the victim had been attacked when she was in the vehicle (that took her to the house) and that she was already unconscious when she arrived," Chung told reporters on Sunday night.

According to police, Choi had financial disputes with her ex-husband and his family involving a luxury property involving tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars (millions of dollars), adding that “some people" were unhappy with how Choi handled her finances.

Choi’s friend Bernard Cheng said he initially thought she had been kidnapped." I haven’t imagined a person who’s so good, so full of love, so innocent, a person who doesn’t do anything bad will be killed like this," he said. “My heart is still heavy. I can’t sleep well."

Cheng said Choi had four children, aged between 3 and 10. Alex Kwong, 28, was the father of the older two, who are being taken care of by Choi’s mother.

Choi had divorced Kwong and remarried Chris Tam, the scion of a wealthy Hong Kong family.

Ex-husband, In-laws Arrested

The 28-year-old’s ex-husband Alex Kwong, his father, Kwong Kau, and brother Anthony Kwong were charged with murder on Monday and face up to life in prison. Choi’s former mother-in-law, Jenny Li, was charged with perverting the course of justice by destroying evidence.

The ex-husband, who resided in an upscale flat in Kowloon, was found with a six-digit sum of cash and watches worth millions of dollars when he was arrested at Tung Chung Development Pier on Saturday as he was attempting to flee the city by boat.

The property where police found bodily remains was equipped with an electric saw and a meat grinder that had been used to mince human flesh, according to Chung.

A fifth suspect connected to Choi’s former father-in-law was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of “assisting criminals".

The four main accused were remanded in custody without bail after appearing before a court on Monday on charges of murder and perverting the course of justice, according to the South China Morning Post.

On Tuesday, Alex Kwong appeared before the court again, this time due to alleged involvement in seven theft cases spanning eight to 10 years ago. Kwong, who was absconding from arrest since 2015, had seven counts of theft, involving the alleged stealing of 39 necklaces, 32 bracelets, 13 gold bars, 102 gold grains, six pendants and 10 taels of gold across seven separate incidents between May 2013 and January 2015, reported SCMP.

While violent crime is rare in Hong Kong, the case recalls a handful of other shocking killings. In 2013, a man killed his parents, and their heads were later found in refrigerators. In another infamous 1999 case, three members of an organized crime group kidnapped and tortured a woman before her death. Her skull was later found stuffed in a Hello Kitty doll and became known as the “Hello Kitty murder case."