Fan Man-yee and the Hello Kitty Murder

Fan Man-yee (樊敏儀) was finally living a clean life. At 23, she was married, had a son, and had cleaned up her act, having worked as a prostitute and been a drug addict in the past. Unfortunately, past mistakes could still haunt you, even if you had changed. And though you yourself may have had no affinity for Hello Kitty, that’s what you would become known for. The Hello Kitty Murder.

Chan Man-lok (陳文樂), was a 34 year old pimp and drug dealer who lived in a five-bedroom apartment at No. 31 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. His apartment was a little girl’s dream; decorated with Hello Kitty top to bottom, including curtains, sheets, kitchenware, a large collection of stuffed toys and more. That was in addition to his hefty supply of pornography, drugs, and video games.

Fan first encountered Chan in 1997, when she stole his wallet which contained $4000 USD. She realized her mistake, but it was too late. She returned the wallet, with an additional $10,000 USD as an apology, but that wasn’t enough. Chan wanted her to give him another $16,000.

When Fan didn’t pay up, Chan decided to take matters into his own hands. On March 17, 1999, Chan ordered his henchmen , 27-year-old Leung Shing-cho (梁勝祖) and 21-year-old Leung Wai-lun (梁偉倫) to kidnap her.

Chan’s original plan was to put Fan to work on the streets as a prostitute, until she could pay off her debt to him. Instead, when they got her back to Chan’s apartment, all three men were high on Crystal Meth and began taking turns beating her.

Chan’s girlfriend, 13 year old Ah Fong was witness to the torture, and reported that on one occasion she watched as her boyfriend kicked Fan at least fifty times. She admitted that at one point, she too, joined in by hitting Fan with her hand. She said, “I had a feeling it was for fun.”

Fan was forced to consume the feces of Ah Fong. They urinated into her mouth. They melted straws and dripped the scalding hot plastic onto the soles of her feet. Ah Fong would pour chili oil onto the burns made by the melted plastic. Her wrists were tied together with electrical wire and she was hung from the ceiling. Then they would all take turns beating her with metal pipes and more until she was covered in blood and her fingers were all broken.

After a month of torture, Ah Fong discovered that Fan was dead. The three men argued that she died as a result of a methamphetamine overdose, but it was more likely she died as a result of her injuries. Especially when you consider that she had been in and out of consciousness in the days leading up to her death.

In mid-April, the men placed Fan’s body in the bathtub and proceeded to dismember her with a saw. At this point, they decided to cook her remains, to stop her from decomposing and stinking up the apartment. They placed her body parts into a pot of boiling water on the stove, sometimes cooking her remains next to the food they were about to have for dinner. They even utilized the same utensils for cooking Fan, as they did for their meals.

Most of her body parts were tossed out with the household garbage, yet for unknown reasons, they chose to keep her head. They opened up a Hello Kitty mermaid stuffed toy and placed her rotting head inside, sewing it shut.

A month later, Ah Fong began having nightmares. She was convinced Fan’s spirit was haunting her, and believed the only way to free herself from the restless ghost, was to confess to the police. She went to the Hong Kong police station and told them she was being haunted by a ghost. As expected, the police dismissed her, until she pressed on, telling them the ghost belonged to a girl she had helped torture and kill.

Police searched Chan’s apartment, which the three men had vacated, and discovered multiple pieces of evidence that corroborated Fong’s story – including the head inside of Hello Kitty.

The three men were arrested, and Fong received immunity from the prosecution in exchange for her testimony against the other three. All three men denied killing Fan, though they did admit they prevented her from receiving a lawful burial – which is a criminal charge in Hong Kong.

Chan and Wai-lun plead guilty to false imprisonment, which Shing-cho denied the allegations. During the course of their trial, the three men turned on one another, each accusing the other of torturing Fan and minimizing their own roles in her abuse. Their defence tried to convince the jury that she had died of a drug overdose.

Due to the method of disposal, medical authorities were unable to determine the exact cause of death. As a result, the jury refused to find the men guilty, and instead the three were convicted of manslaughter in December, 2000. They were sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

20 years will be up in December 2020.