Brutal murder of Hong Kong socialite shocks city residents

The gruesome murder of a Hong Kong model has horrified residents over the past week, as emerging details of the investigation continue to shock people in a city where violent crime is rare.

Abby Choi (蔡天鳳 Cài Tiānfèng), a 28-year-old Hong Kong model and socialite known for her glamorous social media presence, was reported missing on February 22. Her partial remains were found by local police two days later in a rented three-storey building in a village in Tai Po district. The current cause of death is suspected to be from head trauma.

A meat slicer, an electric saw, and some clothing suspected to be connected with the case were seized at scene. Police also uncovered two pots of soup containing human tissue suspected to belong to Choi.

Her ex-husband is one of four people in the same family who have been arrested without bail so far in the investigation, after he attempted to flee the city by speedboat with HK$500,000 ($63,748) in cash and several luxury watches. “We believe he was planning to abscond from Hong Kong by sea,” Alan Chung, superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Department, said. “We have reason to believe that this man, along with his father and elder brother, had a part in killing the deceased.”

The other three who were arrested include her ex-brother’s father, 65, elder brother, 31, and mother, 63. Another suspect, a 47-year-old woman rumored to be the mistress of Choi’s ex-father-in-law, has also been detained.

Local media and horrified residents have compared the murder to the 2019 Korean horror film Parasite (上流寄生族), with many Cantonese-speakers referring to Choi’s ex-family as a 上流寄生族 (soeng6 lau4 gei3 sang1 zuk6), or “high-class parasitic family” — insinuating that the members were a family of parasites eating up the host that sustained them.

“She didn’t deserve this. People are outraged. It’s senseless, and there’s no reason behind it — just money,” a Hong Kong resident told The China Project today.

The South China Morning Post and other local media reported that the murder was believed to be linked to a dispute between Choi, her ex-husband, and her former in-laws over a multi-million dollar property that she had paid for. “Someone was dissatisfied with how the victim handled her assets, which became a motive to kill,” Chung said.

Choi had hired her ex-brother-in-law to work as her driver, a job he used to lure her out to the site of the murder. Her ex-father-in-law, a former police sergeant who left the force in 2005 after being accused of rape, was allegedly the person who orchestrated the murder plot. He had rented the village house a few weeks prior.

“She was very generous to her in-laws. She helped them. She gave her former brother-in-law a job,” the source told The China Project. “It’s horrifying. How could they be so morally corrupt, so cold-blooded, when she was helping them? And they were not satisfied. They were consumed by greed.”

Choi was the daughter of a wealthy family and a young mother of four children. A dedicated fashionista, she had graced the cover of fashion and luxury lifestyle magazine L’Officiel Monaco last month. “I am a person who keeps absorbing inspiration and always tries new styles,” she said. She also helped co-found Paomes Charitable Organisation, a group dedicated to helping stray animals.

More domestic abuse cases since COVID zero

While Hong Kong has been repeatedly ranked as one of the safest cities in the world, sexual and domestic abuse cases have increased since the pandemic. The majority of victims are women.

A survey released in March 2022 by the Hong Kong Women’s Coalition of Equal Opportunities (WCEO) reported that 26.37% of the 1,044 female respondents had experienced intimate partner violence. About 90% of the abusers were male, and more than 60% were former partners, while the rest were current and former legal spouses (12.32% and 11.59% respectively).

During the COVID pandemic, the Hong Kong government’s strict policies of snap lockdowns and quarantine restrictions raised immediate concerns for victims of sexual and domestic violence. Many activists and rights groups feared that the pandemic policies would further confine those already trapped in such patterns of abuse. Meanwhile, job layoffs and an economic downturn caused by the city’s COVID zero rules exacerbated many of the existing stresses on households.

Independent charity organization the Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centers reported more than double the number of domestic violence calls between January to March 2020, compared to the same period in previous years. Almost three quarters of the callers also indicated that they had experienced domestic violence more than once. Of the abusers, none were prosecuted and convicted, and 94% did not participate in counseling programs.

Victim-blaming and a lack of systemic support

The Hong Kong government has taken steps to improve its handling of domestic abuse cases since 2004, after it strengthened a law on domestic violence in light of public pressure over a similarly horrifying murder in which a woman and her two daughters were stabbed to death by the girls’ father. However, critics have claimed that gaps such as systemic victim-blaming, failure among law enforcement to enact protective procedures, and a lack of preventive and supportive work still need to be addressed.

Many women who suffer from domestic abuse are reluctant to come forward. From the WCEO survey, only about half of respondents had sought help, and those who did not cited feelings of embarrassment, shame, or lack of faith in the existing laws and policy support.

Even women who have left their abusive partners often still suffer in the process of seeking help or recovery. There are virtually no Hong Kong government-funded post-separation services: Instead, the system for handling cases of domestic violence and child abuse is primarily focused on crisis prevention and tends to stop support services once the abusers are “removed” from their lives. The expectation for “survivors” to sustain their wellbeing points to the lack of government support for women who have left their abusive partners, despite the well-documented and long-term physical, psychological, social, and financial impacts that remain.

If you are in need of support over domestic violence in Hong Kong, please contact the women’s helpline at the Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centers at (+852) 2386 6255, or email them at laikok@womencentre.org.hk.

If you are located in the United States, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling them at (+1) 800-799-7233, texting “START” to 88788, or chatting with them online here.