In 1977, a local teacher murdered his wife in a brutal hacking in Hong Kong
The couple were married in China in 1944, but fell out of touch when the husband moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and remarried – when they reconnected in 1962, the situation became untenable
“Homicide Squad detectives were early today questioning a 56-year-old primary school teacher in connection with the murder of a woman whose torso was found on a hillside off Wan Tsui Road, Chaiwan, early yesterday morning,” reported the South China Morning Post on January 24, 1977. “The head, arms and legs of the murdered woman had been hacked off [and the victim] identified as 50-year-old Tsang Yuen-wan [ …] police believed she was the common-law wife of the suspect.
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“A scavenger found her mutilated body in a plastic bag, wrapped in a blanket on the hillside near the Hing Wah Estate shortly before 6.30 am. Detectives headed by Superintendent Peter Chan and police pathologists examined the remains and later called in men of the Police Tactical Unit to search the nearby hillside. Later in the day, police tracker dogs were called in to help in the search.
The original article ran in the SCMP on January 24, 1977. Photo: SCMP Archives
“A breakthrough was made when police spotted bloodstains on the wall of the first floor of nearby Fung Hing House, during their door to door inquiries. Bloodstains where also on the eighth floor of the building, which led police to a room where the teacher was found.
“A police dog was taken into the flat and it refused to move. It was believed the scent he sniffed on the hillside was similar to the room.”
On September 24, 1977, the Post reported that “a 57-year-old art teacher described to Mr Justice O’Connor and a jury in the High Court yesterday a struggle between himself and his first wife which resulted in her death.
Policemen bringing a murder suspect to the Tai On Street waterfront in Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong, to search for the limbs of a victim allegedly dumped into the sea. Photo: Yau Tin-kwai
“Man Chung is charged with the murder of 50-year-old Tsang Yuen-wan in his home at Fung Hing House, Hing Wah Estate, Chaiwan, on January 21. Man said he was a teacher at the Immaculate Heart School in Shatin. He was married to Tsang in China in 1944. It was an arranged marriage and he was away from home and not present at the ceremony.
