Explainer | Hong Kong’s gruesome ‘body in box’ murder mystery from 1965
- Mutilated body found in trunk abandoned in Causeway Bay was that of an employer slayed by a disgruntled employee
- Ho Tse-yim, who had studied medicine and was ‘familiar with dissecting bodies’, was found guilty of manslaughter
“Mutilated body of man found in trunk,” ran a South China Morning Post headline on July 10, 1965.
The following day, the Post reported that “a young Chinese couple”, Ho Tsz-yim and his wife, Fung Yuk-hing, were being questioned in connection with the “‘body in box’ mystery”. “The victim is believed to be Mr Pao Koon-tat […] who had been missing since Tuesday when he failed to return home from his office.” Pao’s body was interred on July 11.
A police spokesman told the Post that “two men dressed in dirty shirts and slacks” had tried to manoeuvre the trunk into a lift at Yee Wah Mansion, in Causeway Bay. “The moment they did so, blood started to ooze out of the trunk together with a nauseating smell,” said a woman at the building. The two men abandoned the trunk and “disappeared into the street”.
On July 13, the Post reported that Ho, 29, had been charged with murdering Pao, Ho’s employer, on July 6. Fung was released.
During committal proceedings, a forensic pathologist told the court that he had “examined three large polythene packets containing a head, trunk, and the four limbs of a human body”. “From my findings,” said Dr Frederick Ong Yong-koon, “the cause of death was asphyxia from strangulation”.
An August 17 Post article stated that Ho was committed to stand trial for murder in September.
On September 23, the Post reported that a statement Ho made to police describing his “intense hatred” for Pao’s “insulting reproaches” was read before a jury of seven men. On September 24, Ho admitted to killing his employer, but insisted it was accidental, claiming that Pao had rushed at him with a knife.
Ho, who had studied medicine for 18 months and was “familiar with dissecting bodies”, performed the dismemberment with the same knife Pao had brandished because he wanted “the incident to be completely hidden”.
On September 29, the Post reported that the jury found Ho not guilty of murder. He was sentenced to 12 years for manslaughter.
Ho was found hanged in his cell at Stanley Prison on February 19, 1969.
