‘Complicated’ relationships with multiple lovers could have led to Hong Kong PolyU instructor’s death and dismemberment
Hong Kong murder victim Hilary Bower was dismembered by his killers during a frenzied attack in the Shenzhen flat of a girlfriend police say formed part of a “complicated” love life.
The gruesome killing of the 60-year-old Hong Kong Polytechnic University teacher – confirmed by sources with a knowledge of the investigation – and the removal from Shenzhen of the body parts hampered the police investigation, according to a separate source .
A formal identification of the body has not yet been completed, that source said.
Mystery deepens over death of Hong Kong Polytechnic University academic in Shenzhen
Bower, a permanent resident of Hong Kong and British national, disappeared on March 22 after he crossed into the mainland through the Lo Wu checkpoint on his way home to another mainland girlfriend, Shi Xiumei, and his eight-year-old son, *Matthew.
According to Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, the murder took place the same night in a flat in the Nanshan district of the city owned by another 38-year-old woman, surnamed Xu, with whom Bower was having a relationship.
The woman is one of three people who have been arrested over the murder. The other two are men surnamed Sun and Liu, aged 28 and 23 .
‘Vanished’ PolyU teacher was murdered in Shenzhen the day he left Hong Kong: police
A source told the South China Morning Post : “We were told that the body had been dismembered and had not been recovered.”
It is understood that Bower lived with Shi, who is in her 30s, in Shenzhen. The language instructor also owned a property in *Shekou, the recent sale of which was expected to net him a HK$9 million windfall.
A notice posted on the official Weibo account of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau’s Nanshan branch yesterday read:
A screen grab of the notice from the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau’s Nanshan branch.“Due to a dispute over their relationship, a 38-year-old woman surnamed Xu was unhappy with Hilary St John Bower and conspired with suspects (a man surnamed Sun, 28, and a man surnamed Liu, 23) to kill Bower in her apartment in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen on March 22.”
It added that the suspects, all from Hubei (湖北) province, were arrested on April 8, more than two weeks after the murder.
Bower had been due to retire from the university this year. Yesterday, his younger brother Robin – who flew to Hong Kong from London earlier this week – went to Shenzhen to meet with public security bureau officers investigating his brother’s murder.
British consular officials are understood to have accompanied Bower in Shenzhen.
Additional reporting by Raymond Yeung
Hong Kong murder victim Hilary Bower was dismembered by his killers during a frenzied attack in the Shenzhen flat of a girlfriend police say formed part of a “complicated” love life.
The gruesome killing of the 60-year-old Hong Kong Polytechnic University teacher – confirmed by sources with a knowledge of the investigation – and the removal from Shenzhen of the body parts hampered the police investigation, according to a separate source .
A formal identification of the body has not yet been completed, that source said.
Mystery deepens over death of Hong Kong Polytechnic University academic in Shenzhen
Bower, a permanent resident of Hong Kong and British national, disappeared on March 22 after he crossed into the mainland through the Lo Wu checkpoint on his way home to another mainland girlfriend, Shi Xiumei, and his eight-year-old son, *Matthew.
According to Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, the murder took place the same night in a flat in the Nanshan district of the city owned by another 38-year-old woman, surnamed Xu, with whom Bower was having a relationship.
The woman is one of three people who have been arrested over the murder. The other two are men surnamed Sun and Liu, aged 28 and 23 .
‘Vanished’ PolyU teacher was murdered in Shenzhen the day he left Hong Kong: police
A source told the South China Morning Post : “We were told that the body had been dismembered and had not been recovered.”
It is understood that Bower lived with Shi, who is in her 30s, in Shenzhen. The language instructor also owned a property in *Shekou, the recent sale of which was expected to net him a HK$9 million windfall.
A notice posted on the official Weibo account of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau’s Nanshan branch yesterday read:
A screen grab of the notice from the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau’s Nanshan branch.“Due to a dispute over their relationship, a 38-year-old woman surnamed Xu was unhappy with Hilary St John Bower and conspired with suspects (a man surnamed Sun, 28, and a man surnamed Liu, 23) to kill Bower in her apartment in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen on March 22.”
It added that the suspects, all from Hubei (湖北) province, were arrested on April 8, more than two weeks after the murder.
Bower had been due to retire from the university this year. Yesterday, his younger brother Robin – who flew to Hong Kong from London earlier this week – went to Shenzhen to meet with public security bureau officers investigating his brother’s murder.
British consular officials are understood to have accompanied Bower in Shenzhen.
Additional reporting by Raymond Yeung
