Camy Tam
A 36-year-old man from the mainland killed a 29-year-old mainland woman in a local hotel guestroom on Wednesday and dumped the body on Hac Sa Beach in Coloane on Thursday, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a special press conference on Saturday.
The jobless suspect surnamed Chen is from Zhejiang province. The deceased, surnamed Peng, was involved in illegal currency exchange activities, Chan said.
According to Chan, a man from the mainland went to the Judiciary Police station at about 7 p.m. on Thursday to report that his girlfriend (the deceased) had gone missing. The police immediately launched an investigation into the case and initially suspected that a man surnamed Chen was involved in the case. PJ officers intercepted him in a hotel lobby in the city centre at about 1 a.m. on Saturday. Under questioning, Chen admitted to killing the woman, but he refused to tell the police how he committed the crime and where he dumped the body.
After an in-depth investigation and further questioning, Chen finally admitted that he had hit the woman on the head with an ashtray, and then buried her body on Ha Sa Beach. The Judiciary Police went to the beach with Chen to search for evidence. They discovered the corpse about 1 ½ metres beneath the sand near the embankment, Chan said.
Chen told the officers that he came to Macau to gamble early this month and plotted to rob a currency exchange dealer after losing more than 100,000 yuan. He contacted the victim around noon on Wednesday via WeChat and claimed that he wanted to exchange HK$200,000. Chen met her in the guestroom of a casino hotel in the city centre. However, after realising that Chen wanted to rob her money, the victim resisted and Chen picked up an ashtray and hit the victim on the head with it several times. She collapsed on the floor after being severely injured, according to Chan.
Chen then sexually assaulted the victim and later discovered that she had died of her injuries. He took the HK$200,000 from the victim’s handbag and her smartphone and went to the mainland. He discarded the victim’s smartphone in the mainland and returned to Macau on the same day. He then rented a flat in the northern district through a real estate agency, Chan said.
Chen bought a large suitcase to carry the corpse from the hotel room to the flat on Thursday morning. Afterwards, he went to the beach several times to find a suitable place to bury the body. He went to a supermarket to buy several pans and took a taxi to the beach with the dead body stuffed into the suitcase on Friday night. He used the pans to dig a hole and then buried the body. Afterwards, he returned to the casino hotel and when he was about to go gambling, he was intercepted by the Judiciary Police. After investigation, the police believe that he buried the victim some time between 9 p.m. and midnight on Thursday, according to Chan.
According to a forensic examination, the victim sustained two 4-centimentre-long lacerations on the occipital bone. The exact cause of death has yet to be confirmed by autopsy, Chan said.
After investigating the crime scene at the hotel guestroom, the Judiciary Police found many blood stains on the floor, on the table where the ashtray was placed, as well as in the bathroom sink. PJ officers seized the evidence such as the suitcase and pans in the flat rented by Chen.
PJ officers also discovered that Chen had a police record for robbery in the mainland. The Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation into the case, Chan said.
Chen was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Saturday afternoon, facing charges of homicide, robbery, and sexual coercion, according to Chan.
This is the third murder case of its kind in a local hotel guestroom this year.
The hooded murder suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle on Saturday. Photos: MPDG
Evidence seized from the murder suspect such as a large suitcase, two pans and an ashtray is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters on Saturday.
