The Hello Kitty Murder was a 1999 case in which a nightclub hostess was kidnapped and tortured in an apartment in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, after stealing a wallet. She was kidnapped and tortured by three men before dying a month later. She was then decapitated and her head was placed inside of a Hello Kitty doll. It happened on 17 March that year.
Case
A 23-year-old night club hostess by the name of Fan Man-yee was kidnapped by three men: 34-year-old Chan Man-lok, 27-year-old Leung Shing-cho, 21-year-old Leung Wai-lun, and Chan Man-lok's 13-year-old girlfriend after allegedly stealing a wallet from one of them. They took her to an apartment at No. 31 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, where they imprisoned her. They beat and tortured her daily over a debt dispute of HK$20,000. After a month of imprisonment and torture, Fan was killed and dismembered. Her captors placed her skull inside of a Hello Kitty mermaid doll and discarded the rest of her remains. Only Fan's skull, one tooth, and some internal organs were recovered. Fan's remains were found only after Chan's girlfriend led police to the scene.
Court case
The three men were convicted of manslaughter as the jury ruled the remains were not sufficient to show whether Fan was murdered or died in another way, such as a drug overdose. The underage girlfriend of one of the men testified at the trial in exchange for immunity. The trio were convicted of manslaughter by a jury after a six-week trial. Justice Peter Nguyen, who sentenced the trio to life in prison, stated, "Never in Hong Kong in recent years has a court heard of such cruelty, depravity, callousness, brutality, violence and viciousness." Psychiatric reports described the three, members of a secret triad society, as "remorseless". The jury could not rule that the men intended to kill 23-year-old Fan Man-yee, which would have meant a mandatory life sentence, but it was determined she died as a result of their abuse. There will be no review for parole for 20 years, i.e. until 2019.
Aftermath
The publicity around the case resulted in the production and release of films that told the story. Both Human Pork Chop and There is a Secret in my Soup were released in 2001. The apartment building in which the crime took place was demolished in September 2012 and has been rebuilt as a hotel in 2016. The Bones fourth season episode "The Girl in the Mask" is based on this case.
