Hong Kong police have filed murder charges against the former in-laws of a model whose body parts were found in a refrigerator and a skull believed to be hers was discovered in a pot
From
KANIS LEUNG and HUIZHONG WU Associated Press
Feb 26, 2023 4:47 am ET
• 3 minutes reading time
HONG KONG – Police in Hong Kong charged murder charges against the former in-laws of a model and an influencer whose body parts were found in a fridge at a village house and a skull believed to be hers was discovered in a pot.
Hong Kong model Abby Choi’s former father-in-law and his eldest son face murder charges while her former mother-in-law faces a perversion of justice case, police said in a statement Sunday.
Authorities also arrested the woman’s ex-husband on Saturday and will charge him with the murder on Sunday night, Superintendent Alan Chung said. The four will appear in court on Monday.
The gruesome case came to light when police officers discovered Choi’s body on Friday after she had been missing for several days, along with her ID card, credit cards and other belongings. The body was dissected and the remains stored in a refrigerator in the rural village house in Tai Po, a Hong Kong suburb closer to the Chinese mainland border.
At Sunday’s news conference, Chung said authorities found a young woman’s skull believed to belong to Choi in one of the confiscated cooking pots, alongside several ribs, hair and human issues. In another pot, forensic pathologists also discovered a small number of human bones, he added.
“There’s a hole on the right side at the back of the skull, so the pathologist thinks that was intended to be the fatal attack on the victim,” he said.
Chung said Choi was believed to have been attacked in a car and was unconscious when she got to the house. Police were still trying to determine the exact time of death and to locate her hands and torso.
On Sunday, police also arrested another woman who they believed was the ex-husband’s father’s mistress for allegedly helping the other suspects. Chung said she rented the house with the father, as well as another place to hide the ex-husband.
Choi, 28, has had tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in financial disputes with her ex-husband and his family, Chung previously said, adding that “some people” are unhappy with how Choi is handling their financial assets.
Choi was a model and influencer who shared her glamorous life with photoshoots and fashion shows with more than 100,000 followers. She wore a floor-length tulle dress and had just attended a Dior show at Paris Fashion Week.
Her last post was a week ago and featured a photoshoot she did with L’Officiel Monaco, a fashion magazine.
___
Wu reported from Taipei, Taiwan.