When a frightened 13-year-old girl walked into a Hong Kong police station speaking of headless ghosts and nightly hauntings, officers initially dismissed her as an attention-seeker. Yet this teenage runaway would soon lead them to one of the most disturbing crime scenes in the city's history.
The House of Horrors
Ah Fong, as she became known in court, had been groomed by a dangerous criminal gang. She provided chilling testimony about witnessing and sometimes participating in the prolonged torture of 23-year-old Fan Man-yee, a nightclub hostess.
Police who followed Ah Fong to the third-floor apartment in Kowloon's Granville Road were immediately hit by the overpowering smell of rotting flesh. Inside, they made a gruesome discovery that confirmed the teenager's horrifying story.
Fan Man-yee's dismembered remains were found stuffed in bags scattered around the flat. The missing woman had been abducted over a HK$20,000 debt to triad member Chan Man-lok, who held her captive alongside accomplices Leung Shing-cho and Leung Wai-lun.
Unthinkable Cruelty
During several weeks of captivity, Fan endured unimaginable suffering. Ah Fong testified that the victim was burned with hot objects, beaten with water pipes, and tied to a rack for hours with her hands crossed above her head.
This particular torture method was allegedly intended to prevent Fan from peeling scabs from her burned feet. On one occasion, Chan reportedly kicked and stamped on the helpless woman approximately 50 times, with Ah Fong admitting she joined in, later telling police she had "a feeling it was for fun."
The investigation took its most macabre turn when officers searching the Hello Kitty merchandise-strewn apartment made another devastating find. Fan's skull had been concealed inside a Hello Kitty mermaid plushie, carefully sewn into the doll.
Justice and Aftermath
At trial, the three men denied killing Fan, instead blaming each other while admitting to preventing a lawful burial. Despite the overwhelming evidence of brutality, jurors convicted them of manslaughter rather than murder, ruling the dismembered remains provided insufficient evidence to determine the exact cause of death.
Sentencing the trio to life imprisonment, Hong Kong Justice Peter Nguyen delivered a powerful condemnation: "Never in Hong Kong in recent years has a court heard of such cruelty, depravity, callousness, brutality, violence and viciousness."
The horrific 1999 case, which became known as the "Hello Kitty murder," left a lasting shadow over the neighbourhood. Residents abandoned the building, convinced it remained haunted by Fan's ghost, until an investor purchased and demolished it in 2012.
Ah Fong received immunity for her cooperation with authorities, her initial story of hauntings ultimately revealing a truth far more terrifying than any ghost story.
