A man from the mainland killed and dismembered a mainland woman in a local hotel guestroom on Friday, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said at a special press conference on Sunday.
According to Lou, the suspect was arrested on Sunday morning in Zhongshan, a city some 60 kilometres north of Macau in Guangdong province.
The 28-year-old jobless suspect is surnamed Wang. The deceased was a 37-year-old jobless woman.
Lou said that the suspect would go on trial in the mainland, considering that he’s a mainland resident and the victim was also from the mainland.
While the suspect faces capital punishment in the mainland, in Macau the maximum punishment amounts to a prison term of 30 years.
According to Lou, a cleaner employed by a subcontractor of the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) stumbled on body parts while clearing up leaves on a hill-slope staircase in Estrada Governador Nobre de Carvalho leading to Big Taipa Hill on Saturday morning.
Arms, legs, head & torso
The Public Security Police (PSP) notified the Judiciary Police about the case. PJ officers and a PSP sniffer dog team carried out a detailed search of the area where they discovered nine parts such as the arms, legs and head of a dismembered female body. The torso of the deceased was recovered on Saturday night on a steep hillside 100 metres from the other body parts, Lou said. They also found the victim’s identification documents and blood-stained jacket in the area nearby, Lou said.
According to Lou, follow-up investigations led the Judiciary Police to the victim’s hotel guestroom in Cotai where a forensic examination discovered traces of blood in the bathroom. The Judiciary Police believe that the victim was cut into pieces in the guestroom.
4 knives & a pair of scissors
PJ officers later discovered four knives, a pair of scissors and a suitcase at a rubbish tip in central Taipa and under bushes in Cotai near the hotel where the suspect stayed. A physician later confirmed that according to the cuts all the body parts belong to the same body. The doctor also confirmed that the victim died 12 hours before the body parts were found.
Lou said the Judiciary Police later confirmed that the body parts were scattered between 11 p.m. on Friday and 12 a.m. on Saturday. After a large-scale targeted search operation, PJ officers identified Wang as the suspect and discovered that the victim had met him at 4 p.m. on Friday. The woman entered Wang’s guestroom which she never left. After about 40 minutes, Wang left the room and bought a number of suitcases and knives.
According to Lou, the Judiciary Police believe that the victim was killed and dismembered soon after she had entered the suspect’s guestroom.
Suspect’s multiple taxi rides
At about 10 p.m. that night, Wang took a taxi with a suitcase to central Taipa. He dragged the suitcase to the hill slope where he scattered the body parts, and then took a taxi back to the hotel.
Wang left the hotel again at about 1:50 a.m. on Saturday and once more took a taxi to central Taipa where he left a suitcase at a rubbish tip. According to CCTV footage, each time the suspect carried luggage that appeared to be heavy, according to Lou. After returning to the hotel, he changed his clothes and walked through the bushes near the hotel and returned to the mainland via the Barrier Gate checkpoint at 4 p.m. on Saturday. Wang had entered Macau on June 5, Lou said.
According to laboratory tests, the Judiciary Police verified that the blood stains on the knife and suitcase were consistent with the DNA of the deceased. After confirming that the suspect had returned to the mainland, the Judiciary Police immediately requested the mainland police to assist in the investigation, and Wang was arrested in Zhongshan early Sunday morning. Under questioning, Wang admitted to killing and dismembering the body, and robbing the victim’s valuables, Lou said.
According to Lou, each time Wang took a taxi he repeatedly changed the place where he got out and once even asked the cabbie to go to the Macau peninsula. He also quickly changed his clothes after committing the crime which, according to Lou, meant that Wang tried hard to mislead the police investigations.
Speedy cross-border cooperation
Lou said the swiftness of solving the case was proof that the police forces in Macau and the mainland have a good communication and coordination mechanism, and that the mainland police are very efficient in solving crime cases.
The Judiciary Police and the mainland police are continuing their investigations, such as why the victim entered the guestroom with the suspect, the amount of money and valuables robbed by the suspect, his motives, how long the deceased and the suspect knew each other, and whether they were involved in casino-related crimes such as illegal currency exchange or prostitution, Lou said.
Murder cases have been rare in the city since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) in 1999.
The most recent robbery slaying in an integrated resort in Cotai was committed by a mainland Chinese man who was arrested by the mainland police on May 10 in Cangzhou (滄州), a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, for robbing and murdering a mainland woman on May 3 in a hotel guestroom. The victim was reportedly engaged in illegal currency exchange deals in Macau.
Last week’s dismemberment was Macau’s second homicide this year.
This handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) shows PJ officers searching for body parts on Big Taipa Hill (Daaih Taam Saan) in Taipa on Saturday night.
Evidence such as four knives, a pair of scissors and a suitcase seized by the Judiciary Police (PJ) officers on Saturday is displayed at the PJ headquarters on Sunday.
