Witness in Hong Kong body-in-cement murder trial saw defendants google where to kill and bury victim
But witness Ho Ling-yu on the second day of the murder trial said she thought they were joking even when one of the men asked her where they should dump the body
The housemate of three men on trial for murdering their acquaintance and encasing his body in cement said on Wednesday she saw two of them google locations to kill and bury Cheung Man-li.
Testifying at the High Court on the second day of the trial, Ho Ling-yu also recalled how several months before the alleged murder, the trio held meetings to discuss the killing.
She said one of the men, Tsang Cheung-yan, told the others they could get a “reward” of US$30 million for doing so, though prosecutors in their opening remarks said the amount was HK$30 million (US$3.8 million).
Who really killed Hong Kong’s body-in-cement murder victim?
Ho said when she saw Tsang and Cheung Sin-hang searching the internet on the morning of March 4, 2016 – the day prosecutors said Cheung Man-li was killed – she thought they were joking.
“[They] said they would suffocate him with chloroform … and inject alcohol into his body to make it look like he was drunk,” Ho said of the conversation that took place inside Flat 9D of DAN6 industrial building in Tsuen Wan.
Tsang, 28, Cheung Sin-hang, 25 and Keith Lau, 23, have denied conspiring to murder 28-year-old Cheung Man-li, also known as “Ah J”, in the flat. But they pleaded guilty to one count of preventing the lawful burial of the dead man.
Prosecutors insisted the trio, motivated by money, attacked Cheung Man-li according to Ho’s account, and subsequently fused his dead body into a slab of cement that was dripping with blood.
