The Hello Kitty Murder

Late one night, a young girl arrived alone at a police station. A little agitated, police took the girl into a comfortable room and allowed her to speak her mind.

Police heard how the girl believed that she was being haunted by the blood-soaked spirit of a young woman.

According to the girl, who was 14-years-old, the spirit belonged to a 23-year-old named Fan and came to her at night.

As police listened, an unthinkable story unraveled itself, and it began with the 14-year-old child before them and her 33-year-old boyfriend.

Fan was a young woman, raised an orphan in Hong Kong. After leaving the social care system and needing to fend for herself, Fan began working as a hostess.

Fan became pregnant and gave up her baby son when he was born. The young woman simply couldn’t support a family and may have turned to prostitution to survive, possibly coping by using drugs.

One of Fan’s regular customers was a wealthy man named Chan who was a Triad Member. The Triads are organized criminals, similar to Mafia, who commit a variety of crimes, from fraud, extortion, and money laundering to trafficking, drugs, and counterfeiting. The members of such gangs exert power through wealth and influence and their behavior is frequently unchallenged.

One night, Fan made the mistake of pick-pocketing her customer’s wallet which contained the equivalent of around $4000.

When Chan later confronted her, Fan promised to pay back the money but she simply couldn’t get the amount of cash. To prevent Fan from running away before she repaid him, Chan (along with two pals) kidnapped Fan off the high street.

Locked in a dingy apartment full of Hello Kitty memorabilia, Fan was beaten and raped by multiple men, as well as being offered to ‘paying customers.’

For days and weeks, Fan endured unspeakable torture at the hands of Chan and others. Sometimes, Chan would bring along his then 13-year-old ‘girlfriend’ and have the child participate.

In the room next door to Fan’s torture room, the men enjoyed food and video games, along with drugs.

The torture escalated and Fan was beaten with weapons of all descriptions and force-fed her own waste. Soon, clients would not pay to have sex with Fan and the men simply used her for their own pleasure, finding ever more creative ways to inflict horrific pain upon the young woman.

One evening following a terrible bout of torture, Fan was left alone in the apartment. Upon return, the 13-year-old child found Fan’s abused body in the bathtub.

Fan had succumbed and died.

The group decided that they needed to ‘reduce’ the body in order to dispose of it. As well as cutting Fan’s body into pieces, they boiled it so that the flesh could be removed and disposed of more easily.

Once they’d accomplished their aim, they hid various body parts in different places. Sickeningly, organs were kept in the fridge.

Fan’s skull was concealed inside of this Hello Kitty plush.

Back in the police station, officers accepted the girl’s tale (although they understood the ‘haunting’ to be guilt and trauma), and acted on the information she gave.

Following the arrest of Chan and his two accomplices, police built a damning case with a significant amount of physical evidence collected from the apartment.

However, in a cruel twist, due to the state of Fan’s remains, examiners were unable to determine the exact cause of her death. With the defense arguing that Fan had died of a drug overdose following years of addiction, the prosecution was unable to prove categorically that she had been murdered i.e. the men had not intended to kill her, although her death was a result of their actions.

Thus, the men were tried and convicted of manslaughter. Chan and his men were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after serving 20 years.

They are due for parole now.

The 14-year-old girl was protected from any charges in exchange for testifying. It’s unknown what became of her and her identity was protected for legal reasons.

Although Fan’s son never met his mother, he wears a necklace in her memory.

Fan is remembered by all in Hong Kong. Her death shocked the nation and was recorded as one of the most horrific crimes committed.