Police continue search for rest of Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi’s body

Police in Hong Kong are continuing their search for the missing torso and arms of

murdered socialite Abby Choi

at a city landfill on Tuesday, after her family members identified her other body parts at a mortuary.

More than 100 officers will be mobilised for the search in Ta Kwu Ling in the New Territories, local media reported.

Ms Choi’s skull and several ribs were found in a large soup pot taken from a three-storey house in Tai Po on Sunday.

Her body parts were retrieved last week from a refrigerator in the same residence, allegedly rented by her former father-in-law with the help of his mistress.

Ms Choi’s torso and arms remain missing.

Security camera footage near Tai Po showed a suspect carrying bags from the house to a nearby rubbish collection area.

Some of Ms Choi’s body parts could be found in those bags, the police from the Kowloon West major crimes division said.

The narrowed-down area of search at the landfill is about the size of a football field and holds thousands of tonnes of waste, local media reported.

Two to three days may be required to complete the work.

The police scoured a cemetery and sewage pipes over the weekend with little to show for their efforts.

Five people have been arrested

in connection with the brutal killing, including Ms Choi’s former husband Alex Kwong, 28, and his father, a former policeman who is also the suspected mastermind.

The police say a property dispute is a possible motive for the murder.

Kwong Kau, 65, and his two sons have been charged with murder, while his wife is charged with perverting the course of justice for destroying evidence during a police investigation.

The family of four have been remanded without bail after appearing in court on Monday, with the next hearing set for May 8.

A 47-year-old woman, suspected to be the elder Kwong’s mistress, has also been arrested.

Investigations have been hampered as the suspects are not cooperating, the police said.

Ms Choi, 28, had two children with her former husband. It is not known when they were divorced.

She had two other children with her partner Tam Chuk Kwan, the son of the founder of the TamJai Yunnan Mixian noodle chain.

Although they had a wedding ceremony in 2016, Ms Choi and Mr Tam never legally registered their marriage, suggesting that her assets worth millions would be inherited by her two children with Kwong. The children were in the care of her former in-laws.

Her four children are now under the care of her mother, the police said. Mr Tam has vowed to raise all of them.

Mr Tam, his parents and Ms Choi’s parents gathered near the alleged crime scene at the Tai Po house on Tuesday to mourn the socialite’s death, local media reported. Ms Choi’s mother was seen wailing in the arms of Mr Tam, also known as Chris.

The family members visited a mortuary in Sha Tin earlier on Tuesday morning to identify Ms Choi’s body.

The grisly murder has shaken the Hong Kong public, with a news presenter making the news for appearing to tear up when reporting on the affair.

Meanwhile, the community at Tai Po’s Lung Mei Village, where the body parts were retrieved, has been planning Taoist rituals to “calm the spirit” of the deceased.

And a property expert known for investing in units shunned for their links to murders and suicides has said that rebuilding the apartment block would be preferable for residents to ensure their homes continue to profit from Hong Kong’s famously costly housing market.