Tearful relatives of a maid who was found drowned off Tung Chung said they were shocked yesterday after an inquest jury ruled she had committed suicide.
The five-person jury said Vicenta Flores, 31, had drowned herself after she ran barefoot from her employers' Discovery Bay house four days before her body was found.
Coroner Michael Chan Pik-kiu had directed the jury to choose between suicide and an open verdict. It returned with a 4-1 suicide finding after deliberating for two hours.
But family members insisted it must have been an accident.
'I didn't expect it would be a suicide verdict,' elder sister Irene Flores-Reguis said. 'If she wanted to kill herself, she did not have to go so far away to Tung Chung. Discovery Bay is surrounded by water; she could have just done it there.'
Weeping, Ms Reguis said the three-day inquest had brought no closure to the family and she would pursue the matter if she could. The dead Filipina's aunt, Mercedita Flores, said: 'I'm shocked. I don't believe it.' The inquest had helped to clear up doubts surrounding the death, she said, 'but the jury surprised us with the cause of death'. Flores worked for the same family for 12 years. They moved into a house in Discovery Bay last year.