The tragic death of Abby Choi, a figure who started her career as an influencer on social media, really shocked Hong Kong. The girl who later also became a model and socialite was mutilated and even her body parts were made into soup. As it turns out, the sadistic murder of him was orchestrated by his former father-in-law.
Quoted from CNN, Hong Kong has always been known as one of the safest areas in the world, but sometimes this kind of sadistic murder happens. Most of the victims were women and masterminded by men.
Call it the Hello Kitty murder in 1999, when a 23-year-old woman, Fan Man yee, was kidnapped and tortured by a gang for a month before she was killed and mutilated. Her skull was found inside a Hello Kitty doll.
In 1982, four women were killed by a taxi driver, then mutilated and their limbs stored by the perpetrator before he was caught. Then in 2008, a 16-year-old victim named Wong Ka mui was also mutilated and his limbs were thrown down the toilet.
There's more, in 2013, Glory Chau and Moon Siu were killed and mutilated by their own children. But actually, such cases are fairly rare so if they do happen, it's immediately shocking.
There are only a few dozen murders in Hong Kong per year, compared to say hundreds in New York. Last year, there were only 77 cases of theft, while in New York there were 17 thousand.
Roderic Broadhurst, a criminologist from the Australian National University estimates there have been around a dozen cases of mutilation in Hong Kong over the last 50 years. Meanwhile, Philip Beh, a forensic expert who has worked with the Hong Kong police, said the figure was only around 10.
Both experts say Hong Kong is still very safe. The mutilation cases in Hong Kong are unique because the city is so dense that it makes efforts to hide the bodies very difficult.
If the incident is in rural Australia, Canada or the United States, the perpetrator has many ways to hide the victim and not be caught. Something similar is difficult to do in Hong Kong. The killers there almost certainly lived close to other residents who could catch them at any time, so that may be why the mutilations occurred.
"Most people live in apartments, close to each other. We don't have individuals with houses and gardens to dig up and hide bodies in. You're not really alone, neighbors below you, beside you. Anything out of the ordinary can catch the eye, Beh said.
Broadhurst agrees. He added that in a Hong Kong apartment building, a murderer might have to get to an elevator shared by 100 other residents.
Then why are sometimes parts of the body cooked? Due to Hong Kong's humid sub-tropical climate, the smell of corpses quickly attracts attention. That is why body parts are cooked to further disguise them.
There is also the question, why were mutilated bodies not just stored in the fridge, then thrown into the sea? The problem is that apartments in Hong Kong are usually too small. "Very few people have large fridges at home," and even fewer have freezers, says Beh.
He added that the same was true for cars, and thus there were the same difficulties in transporting bodies discreetly.
Few residents own vehicles because buildings with parking spaces are very expensive. In 2019, parking lots sold for nearly USD 1 million dollars. Hong Kong has an extensive and efficient public transport system, so residents choose it as their main means of transportation.