Camilla Jessen
A runaway teen claimed she was haunted by a woman’s ghost. What police found inside a Hello Kitty doll would horrify a city and expose a chilling story of drugs, torture, and murder.
When a 13-year-old girl walked into a Hong Kong police station in May 1999 claiming she was being haunted by a ghost, officers had no idea they were about to uncover one of the most disturbing crimes in the city’s history.
The girl, later identified in court as Ah Fong, led police to a third-floor flat on Granville Road in Kowloon. Here, they discovered the dismembered remains of 23-year-old Fan Man-yee.
Fan had worked as a nightclub hostess, before she was abducted, tortured, and killed over an unpaid debt.
Her skull was found stuffed inside a Hello Kitty mermaid doll.
The case was dubbed the “Hello Kitty Murder,” and would go on to shake Hong Kong and make international headlines.
This was reported by the South China Morning Post.
A debt turns deadly
Fan’s nightmare began when she was targeted by Chan Man-lok, a 34-year-old triad member, to whom she reportedly owed about HK$20,000 (roughly $2,500 USD at the time).
With help from two accomplices, Leung Shing-cho and Leung Wai-lun, Chan abducted Fan and imprisoned her in a flat filled with Hello Kitty merchandise.
The trio — high on methamphetamine for much of the ordeal — subjected Fan to nearly a month of abuse. She was beaten, burned, and starved, her condition worsening until she ultimately died.
The exact cause of death was never determined due to the condition of her remains.
The teen witness
Ah Fong, a runaway who had become entangled with the gang, was both a witness and, by her own admission, a reluctant participant in the violence.
She later told police she was haunted by Fan’s ghost.
This claim was dismissed at first, until she led investigators to the apartment.
Inside, police found three bags containing body parts and Fan’s skull sewn into a plush Hello Kitty doll. Other remains were discarded as garbage and never recovered.
Life sentences
Though all three men were arrested and tried, the jury ultimately found them guilty of manslaughter rather than murder, citing insufficient evidence to prove exactly how Fan had died.
Each was sentenced to life in prison.
Justice Peter Nguyen, who presided over the case, called the crime “depraved” and “vicious,” adding, “The public is entitled to protection from people such as you.”
Ah Fong, whose ghost story broke the case open, was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony.
Decades later, the Hello Kitty Murder remains one of the most shocking crimes in Hong Kong’s history
This article is made and published by Camilla Jessen, who may have used AI in the preparation
