Details of the gruesome ‘concrete box murder‘ emerged in court today, as three more suspects were charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
In Tsuen Wan Court today, prosecutor So Kin-ho said an 18-year-old woman, surnamed Ho, admitted to discussing Cheung Man-lei’s murder with three men.
The male suspects, surnamed Tsang, Lau and Cheung, had been in Taiwan with Ho since March 11 and were arrested upon their return to Hong Kong on Tuesday.
Cheung Man-lei, aged 28, had apparently visited a Tsuen Wan apartment on March 4 to demand payment of a large debt, which has been reported as HKD1 million and HKD1.5 million by different sources.
The three male suspects have testified to knocking Cheung unconscious with chloroform, strangling him, and injecting him with an unidentified liquid, but have so far denied killing the victim, Apple Daily reports.
Two days after the victim was last seen alive, one of the suspects (also surnamed Cheung) reportedly bought cement from a nearby shop.
According to So, the 28-year-old was found with a plastic bag and pillowcase wrapped around his head, and strings and ropes tied around his body.
Initial investigations reportedly suggest that the cause of Cheung’s death was suffocation.
Both Ho and fellow suspect Tsang were taken to the scene of the crime separately yesterday to reenact their accounts of Cheung’s murder.
So far, Ho has allegedly maintained that she had no hand in Cheung’s death, but was merely “present” when it occurred. The 18-year-old turned her three co-conspirators in to the Taiwanese police after she reportedly “feared she would be next”. Police confirmed that she was charged with conspiracy to commit murder yesterday evening.
Cheung was reported missing on March 6 by his fiancée. On March 29, his body was found encased in a concrete block at an apartment in Tsuen Wan, for which Tsang and Ho are the listed tenants.
So far, nine people have been arrested in connection to the case.
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