The girlfriend of Cheung Man-lei, the 28-year-old man suspected to have been found dead in a concrete block on Tuesday, has been arrested after her response to police interrogation was deemed “suspicious”.
The 26-year-old, surnamed Kwok, was arrested yesterday, according to Apple Daily. She had filed Cheung’s missing persons report on March 6, after she and Cheung’s family were unable to get in touch with him for two days.
Apple Daily previously reported that police traced Cheung’s mobile phone signal to a flat in DAN6, a residential building in Tsuen Wan, where a body matching his description was discovered on Tuesday.
However, Apple Daily, Oriental Daily and various local outlets are now reporting that a friend of the missing man, surnamed Tong, received a WhatsApp message from their mutual acquaintance, Tsang, saying that he had killed a man and was fleeing to Taiwan. According to the police, records show that Tsang did indeed travel to Taiwan.
Tsang, aged 27, and his girlfriend are the listed tenants of the apartment where the body was found. CCTV footage from the apartment building shows Tsang, Cheung, and an unidentified man entering the building on March 4. Cheung was not seen on any further CCTV footage, although Tsang and his so-far unnamed acquaintance were filmed leaving the premises.
According to Apple Daily’s most updated report, CCTV later showed a man in his 20s transporting bags of cement up to Tsang’s flat.
Police allegedly believe that Cheung had visited Tsang’s flat on March 4 to demand the return of a HKD1 million debt. Surveillance footage from DAN6 reportedly shows another person coming and going from Tsang’s flat, leading authorities to believe that “at least two people” committed the murder.
Due to the decomposition of the body, it is believed that the victim was killed not long after Cheung disappeared, although the time and cause of death have yet to be verified, pending post-mortem examinations.
A total of five people have been arrested for conspiracy to commit murder in connection to the case: a 26-year-old woman surnamed Kwok (Cheung’s girlfriend), a 26-year-old man surnamed Liu, a 24-year-old man surnamed Tong, a 21-year-old man surnamed Leung, and Leung’s 16-year-old girlfriend, surnamed Choi. Police are still searching for Tsang.
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