Instead, we had to wait for the following day's news headlines to read about some gruesome deaths that appeared or happened on 4/4, the public holiday of the Ching Ming Festival reserved for grave sweeping.
On that deathly day of days, the 4th April, a suitcase with a body stuffed inside turned up in the harbour, and someone plunged to their death by jumping off the 30th floor … and ended up murdering an innocent passerby in the process.
Oh, the horror!!
References
Death-plunge woman kills maid out walking in estate (The Standard)
Kenneth Foo
Thursday, April 05, 2012
A domestic helper was killed in a bizarre accident yesterday when a suicidal woman jumped off the roof of a building in Tai Koo Shing and landed on her.
Police said a 55-year-old spinster, surnamed Yee, plunged from the rooftop of Shun On Mansion in the private estate. She died on the spot after landing squarely on a Filipino maid, surnamed Rabe, 49, who was passing by.
Rabe was crushed and knocked unconscious. She was taken to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, but died of her injuries.
Police contacted Yee's family through the mobile phone she left at the scene. Family members said the suicide may have come about due to emotional distress arising from a quarrel with her boyfriend the night before.
Rabe was walking through the sitting-out area of the estate at the time, which was around 10am. Passersby thought there was an explosion when they heard a loud "bang."
Three eyewitnesses who were sitting a mere two meters away reported that Rabe was walking under the 32-story block and carrying two plastic bags full of food and water bottles. Officers cordoned off the scene and set up a green tent to cover the body.
A police officer said at the scene that Yee was not a resident of Shun On Mansion, but lived in Tai Koo Shing. Closed- circuit television footage showed that Yee gained access by following a resident into the building.
Residents said canopies are needed to cover the open space on the ground next to buildings to prevent passersby from gettin
g hit by falling objects.
Officers also got in touch with the maid's employer who rushed to the hospital. The woman, who lives at Hing On Mansion in Tai Koo Shing, was distraught after hearing that Rabe had died, saying the maid had also been an intimate friend to the household for years.
Solicitor and Wong Tai Sin district councillor Wong Kwok-tung said Rabe's family is unlikely to receive employment insurance compensation as the accident happened on her day off.
"It is purely an accident and there is no wrongdoing involved," Wong said.
Joseph Law Kwan-din, chairman of the Hong Kong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers Association, said it is tragic that Rabe passed by "the wrong place at the wrong time."
He added: "This accident underlines the importance of employers signing maids up to a comprehensive insurance policy that will give full compensation, for injuries sustained through accidents like these can happen any time."
On March 10, a man, 37, jumped off a building in To Kwa Wan and landed on an 84-year-old passerby.
The younger man died on the spot and the passerby died four days later.
Woman in death leap lands on maid, killing her (SCMP; paywall)
Visitor to Taikoo Shing eludes security to reach roof, from which she jumps to her death, crushing helper
Amy Nip and Clifford Lo
Apr 05, 2012
A woman leapt to her death from the roof of a block of flats yesterday - and landed on a passing domestic helper, killing her.
Yee Mo-yee, 55, plunged from the top of 30-storey Shun On Mansion in On Shing Terrace, Taikoo Shing, as the 49-year-old helper, whose name was given as Rabe, was walking past the building. Yee was certified dead at the scene, while Rabe died in Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.
Surveillance cameras filmed Yee - who was not a resident - walking inside the building with a large group of people, unnoticed by security guards. She went to the rooftop, a door to which appears to have been unlocked, and left her slippers and mobile phone before plunging to the ground, Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, a Taikoo Shing district councillor, said.
The rooftop is divided into eight parts, each the property of the owners of flats on the 30th floor. The sections are fenced off, and owners are supposed to keep them locked.
"Unauthorised people entering the rooftop should trigger an alarm when they open a door, and flat owners on the 30th floor should be alerted," Chiu said.
As it was the Ching Ming festival yesterday, many unknown people - mostly relatives of residents - entered and left the building without the guards paying attention, he said.
Rabe worked for a family living in the adjacent Hing On Mansion. She was described as slim, with shoulder-length hair, and was carrying a shopping bag at the time of the tragedy.
The owner of flat D on the 30th floor, to which the portion of the rooftop from which Yee plunged belongs, bought the property on March 21, property agency Ricacorp said.
Chai Wan police are following up the case.
In February 2010, a woman died in Ma On Shan when an elderly neighbour landed on her after falling 27 floors in an accident.
Harbor horror (The Standard)
Eddie Luk
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Police have launched a murder investigation following the discovery of a woman's decaying body in a suitcase floating in the sea off Hung Hom.
Swimmers out for an early-morning dip yesterday made the grim find.
Police said the woman, aged between 20 and 40, was of Asian descent and had been dead for between four and seven days.
She was wearing only underwear and there were no visible injuries on her body.
Police said they are still trying to confirm the woman's identity.
The light blue suitcase, which police said was about one meter in length and 75 centimeters in width, was first spotted by swimmers off the promenade near Tai Wan Shan Park on Wan Hoi Street.
One of them, surnamed Yau, said he pulled the case to shore with the help of another swimmer.
"There was a strong odor coming from the case when we brought it to the shore," Yau said.
"We stepped on it and tried to break it open, but we failed. Then we saw some hair spilling out of the suitcase."
Yau then reported their discovery to the police at around 7.40am.
A large number of officers arrived at the scene and after forcing open the case found the woman's body.
They cordoned off a section of the Hung Hom promenade and the sea close to the spot where the case was found.
A source not connected with the investigation told Sing Tao Daily, The Standard's sister newspaper, that the body may be that of a worker at a Jordan karaoke club who was reported missing by colleagues around the end of
last month.
The worker, said to be from Sichuan province, is aged around 30 and named Coco. She is said to have been living with her boyfriend, a Hong Kong resident with whom she has a daughter.
The source also claims the woman and her boyfriend, a gangster, had drug habits.
Forensic experts examined the body in a tent set up at the scene before it was taken to a mortuary at around 3pm.
Kowloon City assistant district commander Yeung Chi-choi said the cause of death has not been ascertained.
"We have not found obvious wounds on the body and we can't confirm the cause of her death," Yeung said.
"There were no identification papers or purse in the suitcase. Hence, the identify of the victim remains unknown at this stage."
It was not clear whether the case was dumped in the sea near where it was found or whether the current carried it there from elsewhere.
Officers from the marine police regional crime unit are treating the case as a murder investigation,
A post-mortem examination will be conducted to ascertain the cause of death. The suitcase was also taken away for forensic examination.
Woman's body found floating in suitcase (SCMP; paywall)
Swimmers drag piece of luggage from the harbour at Hung Hom to find it contains corpse, clad only in underwear, that had been in water for up to a week
Clifford Lo
Apr 05, 2012
A suitcase pulled out of Victoria Harbour by two swimmers yesterday was found to contain the corpse of a woman.
A murder investigation was launched after the grim discovery off Hung Hom, near the Harbourfront Landmark, at about 7.30am.
The light blue suitcase was spotted floating in the harbour by one swimmer. Curious about its contents, he enlisted the help of another man in the water to drag it out.
"The suitcase gave off a strong foul smell when we brought it to shore," he said. "We stepped on it to break it open, but failed.
"Then we saw hair spilling out of the suitcase and we immediately called police." After officers sealed off the promenade, they prised open the suitcase and found the corpse inside.
The body was that of an Asian woman, aged between 20 and 40. She was wearing only her underwear.
An initial examination found there were no obvious wounds on the body, said Superintendent Joseph Yeung Chi-choi, police assistant district commander for Kowloon City.
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