Abby Choi’s ex-husband and former in-laws were put in custody without bail on Monday on a joint murder charge, just days after police found the Hong Kong model’s remains.
Choi, 28, was a model with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram. Her last post was Feb. 15, featuring a photo shoot she had done with fashion magazine L’Officiel Monaco.
Choi went missing on Feb. 21, according to a report filed later with the Hong Kong police.
Three days later, police found her dismembered body in a refrigerator in a house rented by her former father-in-law, in a suburban part of Hong Kong about a 30-minute drive from the border with mainland China. They also found a meat slicer and an electric saw at the scene, according to a statement.
On Sunday, authorities discovered a young woman’s skull believed to be Choi’s in a cooking pot that was seized from the house.
Choi’s ex-husband, Alex Kwong, his father, Kwong Kau, and his brother, Anthony Kwong, were charged with murder. Her former mother-in-law, Jenny Li, faces one count of perverting the course of justice. The four were placed in custody without bail.
Fights about money
Choi had financial disputes involving tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars with her ex-husband and his family, police said, noting that “some people” were unhappy with how Choi handled her assets.
Choi’s friend Bernard Cheng said she had four children: two sons ages 10 and three, and two daughters ages eight and six. Kwong, 28, fathered the elder two, and her current husband, Chris Tam, is the father of the younger children.
Tam said he was very thankful to have had Choi in his life and praised her for being supportive, friend Pao Jo-yee relayed in a Facebook post.
“When Abby was alive, she was a very kind person and always wanted to help people,” he was quoted as saying in the post. “I feel anyone who had a chance to be her family or her friend are blessed.”
Cheng said Choi had very good relationships with her family, and would travel with the families of her current and former husbands together. Choi’s current father-in-law is one of the founders of a famous Hong Kong chain of Yunnan rice noodle shops, local newspaper The Standard reported.
Violent crime rare in Hong Kong
Choi’s gruesome murder has gripped many in Hong Kong, as the self-governed southern Chinese city is widely considered safe with a very low level of violent crime.
Her case is one of the most shocking killings Hong Kong has seen since 2013, when a man killed his parents and their heads were later found in refrigerators. In another case from 1999, a woman was kidnapped and tortured by three members from an organized crime group before her death.
A hearing in the case has been adjourned to May 8.
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