The “Hello Kitty Murder,” as it has become known, is one of the most infamous crimes ever perpetrated in Hong Kong.
On February 8, 1999, a 15-year-old girl made a ghastly discovery inside her residence: a large Hello Kitty doll carefully positioned on her bed, with the head of 23-year-old Fan Man-yee meticulously tucked inside.
Fan Man-yee had been orphaned at a young age and left homeless before she became associated with the wrong individual and met her untimely demise.
This case not only grabs attention because of the audacious manner in which the murder was committed but also due to its heartrending backstory.
Despite being raised in a home for girls after her family deserted her at a young age and subsequently developing a heroin addiction, Fan Man-yee was determined to make it on her own.
As a 23-year-old, she managed to secure a position as a hostess in a nightclub.
It was then that she met 34-year-old Chan Man-Lok, an entrepreneur and drug dealer, with whom she shared an affinity.
From these humble beginnings grew years of devoted service.
Fan Man-yee had resorted to theft as a means of procuring money for both cash and narcotics.
In 1997, she unwittingly stole the wallet of Chan Man-Lok, unaware that it contained $4,000 – her biggest score yet.
She tried to hastily escape with the locked bag but was apprehended just before she could get away.
Though Fan thought she had gotten away with the theft, little did she know this would be her final criminal venture: Chan was the ultimate victim of her crime spree.
Fan-men Yen murder
Chan-Man-Lok enlisted two of his henchmen, Leung Shing-Cho and Leung Wai-Lun, to abduct Man-yee as soon as he realized his money was gone.
In exchange for the money she had taken from him, he wanted to coerce her into prostitution to profit from it. However, the plan quickly spiraled out of control.
Fan Man-yee was soon subjected to torture after the drug lord and his henchmen realized that mere prostitution would not suffice.
For more than a month, they beat her, restrained her, burned her flesh, assaulted her, and made her consume human waste.
How did Fan Man-yee die?
According to Ah Fong, Fan Man-yee passed away overnight after being tortured for a month.
While most experts believe her injuries ultimately led to her death, Chan Man-Lok and his henchmen claimed she died from a self-administered methamphetamine overdose.
Because there is no way to know for sure, they can only speculate.
The perpetrators transferred Man-yee’s body to the bathtub in the apartment and used a saw to dismember her body after realizing she was deceased.
Then, they cooked each part of her corpse separately to prevent it from decomposing and smelling like rotten flesh.
The murderers prepared the parts of her body and disposed of them with the household refuse on the same stove they were using to prepare meals.
But they did manage to retain her head.
They purportedly used the same utensils to cook their meals as they used to move her head about while it was being boiled on the stove before sewing her boiled skull into a large Hello Kitty mermaid doll.
They also preserved various internal organs and one of Fan Man-yee’s teeth, which they kept in a plastic bag.
What happened to the criminals?
One of the convicts found guilty in the Hello Kitty murder case in 1999 was sentenced to 12 months in prison for indecently assaulting a 10-year-old child.
Leung Shing-Cho, a 48-year-old defendant, was prosecuted in the West Kowloon Magistrate’s Court.
The girl, the daughter of his friend, was allegedly molested by Leung when he pretended to give her a “massage” in a Tin Shui Wai apartment in December, the court heard.
Leung was judged to have engaged in activity beyond “massage” and took advantage of the victim’s trust by Magistrate Jeffrey Sze Cho-you.
The Magistrate stated, “The degree of the sentence should examine the magnitude of the case provoking public hatred, along with the issue of preventing children’s legal rights from being violated.”
In 1999, Leung was one of the defendants in a murder case. He and the other two defendants were charged with torturing and killing a woman by kidnapping and torturing her.
The murder case acquired its nickname after the victim’s body was mutilated and her head was placed inside a Hello Kitty doll.
In 2000, Leung initially received a life sentence after being convicted of homicide, wrongful detention, and preventing the proper burial of a deceased. Later, the sentence was commuted.
