Abby Choi, a 28-year-old Hong Kong celebrity, caused a sensation when her ex-husband's family brutally killed and dismembered her body over a money dispute.
Cai Tianfeng's ex-husband's family of four was charged with murder and obstruction of justice, and was again arraigned on the afternoon of May 8.
The defendants were escorted by prison van to the Kowloon City Magistrates' Court, where three were charged with murder.
Including Cai Tianfeng's ex-husband, 28-year-old Kwong Gangzhi, Kwong Gangzhi's 31-year-old brother, Kwong Gangjie, who is Cai Tianfeng's driver, and the father of the two brothers, 65-year-old Kwong Qiu.
Kwong Hong Chi
Kwong Qiu
As for Kwong's 63-year-old mother, Lee Swee Heung, was accused of obstructing justice on suspicion of destroying relevant criminal investigation materials.
Lee Swee Heung and Kwong Gangjie
The other two defendants in the same case reported that 41-year-old Lam Shun and Kwong's girlfriend, Poon Chiu-yin, 29, who worked for a charter yacht company, were suspected of assisting Kwong Gangzhi to abscond, and were arraigned at the Kowloon City Magistrates' Court on the afternoon of the same day.
Hong Kong media reported that the prosecution added new witnesses, including the deceased's husband, current father-in-law and mother.
Due to new developments in the case, the prosecution proposed to adjourn the six defendants to July 31, during which they had to examine 30 kitchen tools, including knives, chainsaws, hammers, etc., found in the village house in Longwei Village, and to examine their DNA one by one, so they applied to adjourn the case.
The prosecution's lawyer pointed out that the DNA of the deceased woman was found in the private car, while the lower limbs found in Longwei Village belonged to the female deceased, and the coat seized in Longwei Village contained Li Ruixiang's DNA.
The defence agreed to adjourn the case until 31 July.
Li Ruixiang applied for guarantees, and the defense pointed out that according to the facts of the case and the investigation of the police, Li Ruixiang did not appear in Longwei Village.
In addition, the defense said that Li Ruixiang had to take care of her two grandchildren and had a low chance of absconding.
The defence offered a cash guarantee of HK$30,000, not to harass prosecution witnesses, regularly report to Hung Hom Police Station, and not leave Hong Kong during the period of bail conditions.
However, after hearing the case, the Magistrate refused the defendant's application for bail.
Kwong's family of four remained in remand custody.
The remaining two defendants were granted renewed bail, subject to the addition of a new bail condition, namely no direct or indirect access to prosecution witnesses.
It is understood that all those involved in the case have been arrested.
The murder involved three families, including Cai Tianfeng's own native family, she was accused of being Miss Qianjin, and her mother Zhang Yanhua (Sister Hua) was from Hainan, engaged in engineering business, and had a net worth of more than 100 million yuan.
In addition, although Cai Tianfeng divorced her ex-husband, the two had a son and a daughter, and the children were handed over to their grandparents to take care of, and Cai Tianfeng and her ex-husband's family had a harmonious relationship before the case.
Cai Tianfeng and her current husband did not have a license, but they held a grand wedding, which was seen by the outside world as a loving couple, and the two also had a son and a daughter.
Cai Tianfeng's husband Chris is the son of Tam Chakwan, the founder of "TamJai Yunnan Mixian", which is a wealthy family in the eyes of many Hong Kong people.
Nearly three months after the crime, the villagers in Longwei Village, Tai Po, where the crime occurred, are still in shock, tenants have moved out one after another, and rents have fallen by nearly half.
Some real estate agents bluntly said that the case is too sensational, and it is estimated that it will take at least decades to be forgotten.
According to the "Dagong Wenhui" report, the police quickly launched a search operation within 48 hours of the deceased's disappearance, which was originally related to Kwok Fucheng's wife Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan is Cai Tianfeng's best friend, and after her friend disappeared, Fang Yuan informed Kwok Fucheng of the incident, and Kwok immediately used his contacts to directly contact the police for help.
Of course, the police did not launch an investigation for Kwok Fucheng's words.
According to lawyer Weng Jingjing, Cai Tianfeng's disappearance case is full of doubts, she is the mother of four young children, she "disappeared" for no reason on the way to pick up her children, and it involves a wealthy family, suspected of being related to the kidnapping case, these clues will attract the attention of the police.
Cai Tianfeng was killed, Hong Kong media pointed out that she has a 100 million yuan inheritance in her name, the most concerned of which is the Gadolian Hill mansion she bought in the name of her former father-in-law Kwong Qiu, which has a market value of more than 60 million Hong Kong dollars.
On March 6, Cai Tianfeng's mother took the lead in applying to ban Kwong Qiu from selling the Gadolian Hill property, hoping to keep her daughter's property as quickly as possible.
In addition, Hong Kong media pointed out that in the past three months, Cai Tianfeng's mother has frequently met with lawyers, and she wants to fight for the custody of her two grandchildren (children born to Cai Tianfeng and her ex-husband), and also intends to apply to be the administrator of the estate.
On the seventh day of Cai Tian's phoenix, Sister Hua and the Tan family went to the crime scene to worship together, when Sister Hua and son-in-law Chris comforted each other and got along well, and the two were like mother and son.
However, Cai's mother, Zhang Yanhua (hereinafter referred to as Sister Hua), claimed to be the intended administrator of the estate, and did not reach an agreement with the Tan family or the Kwong family in advance.
Hong Kong media described it this way:
"When Sister Hua played the card of the proposed estate administrator, it immediately touched the nerves of Cai Tianfeng's current husband and ex-husband, and each sent a representative lawyer to intervene in the incident to protect the rights and interests of Cai Tianfeng's children. It can be seen that Sister Hua did not reach an agreement with the Tan family or the Kwong family before joining the family, and the three families involved at least four inheritors, which may start a property war. ”
Hong Kong media interviewed Sister Hua, she admitted that she has recently been arranging her daughter's death and dealing with inheritance matters, "After my daughter passed away, I rarely left the house, unless I cooperated with the police investigation, and I didn't want to see people the rest of the time." I went to the law firm because I had two grandchildren in my care, and it was true that I went to handle their custody. ”
However, when asked if she acted as an estate administrator, Sister Hua said that the matter involved her daughter, so she did not want to respond.
According to people familiar with the matter, the "administrator of Cai Tianfeng's estate" is not necessarily Cai's mother, Cai Tianfeng's four children are the heirs of the estate, and the guardians of the children may become the administrator of the estate.
As for the duties of the estate administrator, apart from recovering or administering some property suspected to belong to the estate (e.g. the mansion owned by Kwong Chiu), the estate will also hold the estate of the beneficiary in trust until the beneficiary reaches adulthood, and distribute part of the estate as living expenses before the beneficiary obtains the estate.
There is a lot of news circulating on the Internet about Cai's mother's background, but she is indeed famous in Hainan, and many neighbors have heard her story.
Cai's mother, 49, is engaged in the engineering business in Hainan, and the business is getting bigger and bigger, and after divorcing Cai Tianfeng's father, she married her current husband and gave birth to two daughters.
Hong Kong media revealed that Sister Hua likes to play mahjong, and loses more and wins less, and will borrow money to pay off debts due to a temporary lack of turnover, but she has borrowed and repaid, and is very creditworthy.
Many Hainanese people refer to Sister Hua as a "great benevolent person" because she is enthusiastic about helping others and has done a lot of good things for her hometown after making her fortune.
Cai Tianfeng was able to live a rich life, in addition to being rich in her husband's family, the key reason was that Sister Hua made a lot of money in business.
According to the news, Cai Tianfeng withdrew 350,000 Hong Kong dollars a month as pocket money, and on the day of her death, there was more than one million cash in her bag.
The outside world speculates that the mansion that Cai Tianfeng asked Kwong Qiu to hold was actually purchased by Sister Hua, in addition, Cai Tianfeng also has a high-rise unit located in Mancton Hill, Lai Chi Kok, which is actually a wedding dowry given to her by the Tan family.
In other words, Cai Tianfeng's so-called personal inheritance still involves three families, as Hong Kong media said, a storm of property competition can be set off at any time.