Explainer | Hong Kong murders: when five women were killed by feng shui master with cyanide ‘holy water’
Three close friends and the two teenaged daughters of one of the women were poisoned by Chinese feng shui practitioner Li Yuhui during a ‘longevity rite’
“A mother, her two teenage daughters, and two women friends were found dead in a suspected suicide pact in a flat in Kowloon Bay last night,” ran a story in the South China Morning Post on July 24, 1998.
The five were later identified as Becky Lam Chun-lai, the 49-year-old executive director of a publicly traded company, who lived with her husband and three children in Repulse Bay; Choi Sau-chun, 44, a mother of one and resident of Telford Gardens; Tsui Shun-kam, 40, who lived in the fifth-floor flat, also in Telford Gardens, in which the bodies were found; and Tsui’s daughters, Lee Ying-fai, 17, and Lee Ying-hei, 13.
In the days before they died, the women, who were close friends, had each withdrawn large sums of money, totalling HK$1.3 million. An examination showed all five had died from cyanide poisoning, reported the Post on July 27.
Mainland Chinese feng shui expert Li Yuhui was named in a July 28 article as a person of interest. On August 5, the Post reported that Hong Kong police had lost contact with Li, who was in China. Li’s arrest was announced on October 9. A day later it was reported that he would stand trial in the mainland, where he would face the death penalty if convicted, following an alleged confession.
According to an October 10Post article: “The women, who had only known Li a month, were given ‘holy water’ – later confirmed to have been cyanide – to drink and told that every $10,000 could buy another year of life” as part of a longevity rite. Tsui was told to give each daughter a cup of “holy water” to drink. Once all five were dead, Li took the HK$1.3 million and returned to the mainland.
