In Pingcho village, Taku Ling, Hong Kong, there lived a family of four. The head of household was Tan Chung Hay, 43 years old, working as a clerk in the finance office at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His job was stable and life seemed peaceful and orderly. His wife, Tong Eni, was 34, an accountant for an office supply company.
quiet by nature with a simple lifestyle. The couple had two young daughters. The older one, Tan Xiain, was just 10 years old and the younger one, Tan Xiaoying, had just turned seven. This family had already endured significant hardships. Chungi’s father had been a sailor. Several years earlier, during a voyage at sea, he suddenly disappeared.
Whether alive or dead, no one knew. The shock devastated his mother, causing her to fall seriously ill. After a period of treatment, she was no longer able to care for herself and had to move into a nursing home. From then on, only Chung Hi’s family of four remained in the house at Pingche. July 6th was a Monday, a regular workday.
Chung Hi should have been at the office as usual, but that day he never showed up. His colleagues waited and waited, calling his cell phone repeatedly, but no one answered. The prolonged silence began to worry everyone. It wasn’t until nearly noon that the call finally connected. But the person who answered wasn’t Chung Haye. It was a stranger, a man.
He introduced himself as Chungwe cousin. His voice hurried and somewhat evasive. He said that since Saturday the previous week, Chungi had taken his whole family back to Donguan to handle some personal matters, leaving his phone behind at home. As for when Chung Hui would return to Hong Kong, the man answered vaguely that he didn’t know either.
Before he could even finish his sentence, he hastily hung up. Chung Hui’s colleagues found this increasingly strange. Chung Hui had always been known for being diligent, meticulous, and exceptionally responsible. He had never missed work without reason, and certainly had never disappeared without a word of notice.
If there really was an urgent family matter requiring him to return home, he would definitely have requested leave properly. He would never stay silent in such an unusual way. Moreover, the explanation from the self-proclaimed cousin made even less sense. According to him, Chung Haye had gone to Donguan on Saturday, but it was now Monday.
The distance between Donguan and Hong Kong isn’t far, and transportation is convenient. Even if he really had forgotten his phone at home, after 2 days, he surely would have come back to get it, or at least contacted someone another way. Leaving the phone unattended, not notifying work, none of this matched Chung Hui’s usual character.
Several colleagues gathered to discuss it. The more they analyzed, the more every detail seemed wrong. So, they called the police. At 1:15 p.m., police quickly arrived at the Tan family’s home in Pingche village to investigate. Before them stood a house with doors tightly shut, completely silent. Police knocked repeatedly, but there was no response from inside whatsoever.
With no other option, they turned to questioning the neighbors to gather information. A neighbor named Huang said that he had also heard the person claiming to be Chung Huay’s cousin say that the whole family of four had gone to Donguan on Saturday and might stay there for a while, which was why the house was all closed up like that.
However, when police continued asking where this cousin was now, Wong seemed uncertain. He said he only knew from what the Tan family had mentioned before that whenever this cousin visited, he either stayed at the Tan home or temporarily lodged with another relative in the same village. Beyond that, he knew nothing specific.
Given the situation, police had no choice but to go doortodo throughout the village, following this meager lead. After a round of searching, they finally made a discovery. At house number 74 on Uncha Road, police found the man who claimed to be Chung Hi’s cousin. His name was Shu Shangchi, 42 years old, originally from Jong Shan Guang Dong.
Finding Shu Shang Chi immediately took the case in a new direction. A cousin who suddenly appeared, answered the phone on Chung Hi’s behalf, gave vague explanations, then had unclear whereabouts for hours. Was he just an innocent messenger or was he actually connected to the abnormal disappearance of the entire Tan family? The whole story actually has to begin with the tin roofed house where the Tan family lived in Pingche village.
From the outside, it sat on a fairly large plot of land totaling about 8,000 square ft, but the actual built area of the house was only around 990 square ft. Most of the remaining land was an open courtyard and flower garden, quite spacious on all sides. Few people knew that this place had once been a pig farm.
Years ago, Chungwi’s father worked as a sailor. During those years, he managed to save up a decent sum of money. With capital in hand, he decided to lease a plot of agricultural land in Pingche to start a pig farm. The farm had once been quite busy, serving as the main source of income for the whole family. But disaster struck when the father suddenly disappeared at sea, his fate unknown.
After that, with the family’s pillar gone, the pig farm gradually fell into disuse. No one had the strength or the heart to continue raising pigs. Over time, the old farm was abandoned, overgrown with weeds. Later, Chungi had the land renovated, building a simple tin roofed house for the family to live in.
Notably, in recent years, all the repair, maintenance, and renovation work on the house had not been handled by Chung Hui himself. He had delegated all of it to his cousin, Shu Shanki. This cousin Shanki actually had an extremely difficult family background. His life seemed to be struck by one heavy blow after another.
Shanki originally had an older brother, but years ago, due to prolonged marital conflicts, his brother became mentally overwhelmed. and in a moment of despair threw himself into the sea. Before that pain could even heal, 3 years before this case occurred, Shenkei’s father fell seriously ill and was hospitalized. Unfortunately, a serious medical error occurred during treatment and he eventually passed away.
After these consecutive shocks, Shanki’s mother developed Alzheimer’s disease. Her memory severely declining, completely unable to care for herself. The burden of the family fell entirely on Shangi’s shoulders. His wife was just a production line worker at a garment factory with low and unstable income. The couple also had to support two children in school, one in middle school, the other about to enter college.
Living expenses and educational costs grew larger by the day. The pressure of putting food on the table weighed on them daily, keeping Shanki’s family constantly stressed and struggling. Initially, Shanki worked in home renovation and repair in Jong Shan. In his spare time, he also drove a motorcycle taxi to earn extra income. Though he worked hard everyday, the money he earned was only enough to maintain a bare minimum existence, always living hand-to-mouth.
That’s why when he learned that wages in Hong Kong were much higher than on the mainland, Shangi began entertaining the idea of going to Hong Kong to work, even as an illegal laborer. He approached his cousin Chung Hui for help. Changi understood his cousin’s difficult circumstances and couldn’t bear to refuse.
He introduced Shangi to some construction and interior decoration jobs in Hong Kong. Starting in 2003, Shangi began frequently traveling to Hong Kong for work. Later, when Chung Hi needed renovations and improvements done on his house in Pingche village, he directly hired Shunki to handle most of the work. After the renovations were completed, Shangi didn’t appear at the Tan home for quite a long time.
It wasn’t until 2009, when work in Jung Xan hit another dead end, that Shangi once again turned to Chung Haye for job referrals. At that time, Chungi said that if he couldn’t find construction work elsewhere, he could come to his house and help take care of the flower garden and look after things. On July 3rd, Shu Shangi arrived in Hong Kong and temporarily stayed at the home of a distant relative.
When questioned by police, Shangi told a story that at first sounded reasonable. He said his cousin Tan Cheng owned property on the mainland, and that Saturday, he needed to go to Donguan to handle a real estate transaction. Taking advantage of the trip, Chungi had brought his whole family back home to visit relatives.
Before leaving Hong Kong, Chungwei had asked Shangqi to look after the house and also help finish the outdoor paving work that was still incomplete. Chungi had specifically instructed that if he didn’t make it back to Hong Kong in time for work on Monday, Shangchi should help notify his colleagues and relevant parties, explaining that he was busy with matters on the mainland.
Shangi also emphasized that Chungi hadn’t taken his phone when he left, so currently there was no way to contact his cousin. However, after hearing this statement, police began to sense many inconsistencies. First, it was very strange for an adult handling an important real estate transaction to go without bringing a cell phone.
Could it be that Chung Hi deliberately left his phone behind because roaming charges for a Hong Kong SIM card on the mainland were too expensive? But even if that were the case, once he arrived in Donguan, a major city with every possible means of communication, he could easily have bought a new SIM card or called home much earlier.
There was no explanation for such prolonged loss of contact. More importantly, not just Chungi, but both husband and wife had suddenly stopped going to work with neither one requesting leave from their respective employers. This situation was clearly abnormal to the point of being suspicious. Beyond these statements, police also noticed that Shanki’s finger was injured and had been carefully bandaged.
When asked, Shanki explained it was just a wound from working with nails and bolts, accidentally scraping his hand. This type of accident is indeed common in construction and repair work. So, initially, police didn’t immediately suspect too much from this detail. However, in a context where the family had vanished without a trace, even the smallest signs became sensitive.
Before having more leads on the whereabouts of the Tan family, police decided to begin their investigation from the tin roofed house in Pingshay village itself, the starting point of the entire matter. Therefore, they directly asked Shanki whether he had the house key to assist with the search. The moment he heard about searching the house, Shanki immediately became visibly tense.
His expression changed, his reaction somewhat flustered. Initially, Shangi insisted he didn’t have a key. But this answer immediately revealed a serious contradiction. If, as Shangi had said earlier, Chungi had asked him to watch the house while the family was away, then not giving him a key made absolutely no sense.
Someone entrusted with looking after a house, yet not holding a key. This was clearly unacceptable. Furthermore, police had already gathered information from neighbor Huang that he had once personally witnessed Chun Hi handing a key to Shangi. Perhaps realizing his words were no longer convincing, Shangqi was forced to change his explanation.
He admitted that during the earlier renovation work, he had indeed kept a spare key, but after the work was completed, he had returned it to Chungwe. As for this time, according to him, his cousin had left in too much of a hurry and forgot to give him the spare key. By this point, however, police could see very clearly.
Shangi was doing everything possible to avoid letting anyone enter the house. His defensive attitude was becoming increasingly obvious, as if something hidden inside couldn’t be revealed. Faced with this evasiveness, police began applying pressure, sternly warning that if Shanki continued to be uncooperative, they would have no choice but to break down the door and conduct a search according to procedure.
Confronted with the police’s firm stance, Shunki finally couldn’t hold out any longer. In a state of reluctance and helplessness, he obediently produced the key and opened the door to the house. The moment police stepped inside the Tan home, they immediately understood why Shanki had been so terrified at the mention of an investigation.
The scene inside was utter chaos. Belongings strewn everywhere, drawers pulled open, cabinets thrown wide. Clearly, the house had been thoroughly ransacked, looking exactly like the aftermath of a home invasion robbery. Not only that, but on the walls and floor of the living room, they found numerous dried blood stains.
In the secondary bedroom, police discovered a blood stained shirt and a hollow plastic pipe also smeared with blood. In the kitchen area, there were still some dishes that hadn’t been washed. In the drawer of the master bedroom, police also found the identification cards of both Mr. and Mrs. Tan. With the ID card still in the house, the entire Tan family very likely had never left Hong Kong.
To verify this, police immediately contacted the immigration department to check records. The results showed that during this time period, there was no record whatsoever of the Tan family leaving Hong Kong. This meant that the Donguan trip story Shangi had been telling from beginning to end was complete fabrication. However, despite the mounting suspicious points, at that time, the chain of evidence was still not complete enough to conclude the full truth.
To crack the case quickly, the most important thing now was to find the whereabouts of the Tan family. Police continued searching the house multiple more times, checking every corner inside and outside the premises. Finally, an unusual detail caught their eye. In the empty lot about 30 ft from the front door, the ground showed signs of having been disturbed unnaturally.
The soil was uneven, distinctly different from the surrounding areas. When they conducted a preliminary test, police also detected blood traces in this area. These signs immediately made investigators suspect that beneath that layer of earth, a serious secret must be hidden. However, since it was already getting dark, and to avoid damaging the scene and any remaining evidence, police decided not to dig immediately.
Instead, they quickly cordined off the area, set up a perimeter around the suspicious zone, and sealed off all entrances and exits to Pingche village. Police immediately detained Shangi and conducted a search of his person. They found in his pocket the bank card and credit card of his sister-in-law, Eni. Immediately after, police searched house number 74 on Uncha Road where Sheni was staying.
There they found one after another Eni’s laptop and wallet along with the cell phones of both Chung Hoy and his wife. Most notably, under the pillow where Shangi slept, they found a student ID card from Enie’s school days. As the evidence piled up higher and higher, Shangi’s psychological defenses completely collapsed.
Finally, he bowed his head and confessed to all his crimes. However, in his statement, Shunki repeatedly emphasized that everything was unintentional, that he had never meant to harm his cousin’s family. According to him, the tragedy that led to this day originated from a secret affair between him and his sister-in-law, Eni. Sheni claimed that over the years, each time he came to Hong Kong for work, he gradually developed feelings for Eni.
Though the two had never crossed the line, there existed between them intimate contact, an ambiguous relationship that continued in silence. On the morning of July 5th, Chung Haye left home to visit his mother at the nursing home. Seizing this opportunity, Shangi snuck into the Tan home to see his sister-in-law.
At that time, the two nieces were in the bedroom watching cartoons, completely unaware of what was happening outside. Meanwhile, in the living room, Shangchi and Eni engaged in behavior that crossed boundaries. Unexpectedly, around 11:30 a.m., Chungi suddenly returned home early. The scene before his eyes immediately sent him into a rage.
In his fury, Chungi grabbed a fruit knife and charged straight at Shunki, his demeanor completely out of control, as if he wanted to fight to the death right there. Shangi couldn’t dodge in time and was forced into a direct physical struggle with Chung Haye. In that chaotic moment, his emotions completely spiraled out of control. The two men grappled violently, the sounds of collision ringing sharply through the cramped space of the house.
Shanki’s mind went nearly blank. He was barely conscious of what he was doing, reacting purely on instinct to defend himself. By the time he suddenly came to his senses, everything was already too late. Chungi lay motionless on the floor, no longer breathing. As for Eni, the sister-in-law standing nearby, from start to finish, she had been frozen with fear by the scene before her, her legs seemingly nailed to the floor.
Only when she saw her husband collapse did she snap awake, screaming for help and panic, throwing whatever was within reach at Shanki while trembling as she tried to call the police. But outside at that moment, rain and wind were raging fiercely, thunder and lightning roaring. Eni’s weak cries for help were quickly swallowed by the storm, unable to reach the outside.
In his extreme panic, Shanki feared Eny would call the police. So, he found electrical wire and tied her hands tightly behind her back, then used tape to seal her mouth and nose shut. But immediately after, Shanki suddenly remembered that there were still two young nieces in the house. In his panic, he turned and rushed toward the bedroom, intending to restrain the two children to prevent anything unexpected.
But when he arrived, Shanki discovered the bedroom door had been locked tight from the inside. Apparently, the two children had heard the commotion and frightened had locked the door from inside to protect themselves. Seeing the bedroom door locked tight, Shanki frantically searched the house and finally found a pair of iron pliers.
In his panicked and out of control state, he used the pliers to pry hard at the door, broke the lock, and burst inside, restraining the two nieces. According to Shangi’s later statement, at that moment his mind was completely blank, no longer capable of thinking clearly. In his chaotic thoughts, only one idea remained.
Whether he fled or tried to fool everyone, he needed money. Sheni ransacked the house, found his sister-in-law, Eni’s bank card, then went back and forced her to reveal the password. In her bound state, Eni had almost no ability to resist. Finally, Shunki obtained what he believed was the correct password.
With the bank card in hand, Shunki felt like he had grabbed onto a last lifeline. He ran straight to the Shungu train station, hoping to withdraw money that very night to prepare for his escape. But the password was wrong. The ATM rejected the transaction. The entire plan in Shenke’s head collapsed in an instant. In his extreme anger and terror, Shanki returned to the Tan home.
But when he entered, he discovered that his sister-in-law, Eni, and the two nieces had stopped breathing. That was Sheni’s one-sided account. However, immediately after hearing it, investigators realized the story contained quite a few inconsistencies. First was the kitchen area. At the scene, pots, pans, bowls, and chopsticks were scattered messily on the stove.
and unwashed dishes remained in the sink. All these signs clearly showed that before the incident occurred, the Tan family had just finished eating a meal. But in Sheni’s account, he said that he and his sister-in-law Eni were being intimate in the living room while the two children were watching cartoons in the bedroom.
As he described it, no one was cooking, and there was no mention of the family gathering for a meal. So, where did all those dirty dishes in the kitchen come from? And it didn’t stop there. The secret affair between Sheni and his sister-in-law Eni that he reported also revealed many suspicious points. Through actual investigation into the Tan family’s daily schedule, police discovered that these two people had almost no opportunity to be alone together.
Every day, Eni and Chung Hui left home very early to take their daughters to school. Then each went to their own jobs. Only in the evening did the whole family gather again. As for Shangi, though he did come to help with the flower garden during a certain period, his work only took place during the day. According to neighbors and acquaintances, Shangi usually packed up his tools and left before sunset, rarely staying long in the house.
Neighbor Huang also provided important information. Since Chung Hui and Eni got married, their relationship as husband and wife had always been very harmonious. He had never heard them raise their voices or argue. On the contrary, Hang often saw the family of four on weekends driving out together for outings, appearing very happy.
These testimonies made the picture Shangi had painted completely fall apart. The more they cross-referenced, the more police realized that Shanki’s initial statement showed signs of fabrication and misdirection. The investigators concluded this man was very cunning, still deliberately hiding the most important truth.
Given this situation, police decided to intensify the interrogation, giving him no opportunity to evade. Finally, under mounting psychological pressure, Shanki was forced to admit the truth. He confessed that there was absolutely no secret relationship with his sister-in-law, Eni. From beginning to end, it had only been his own one-sided infatuation.
According to his new statement, on July 4th, Saturday, Chungwei took the family’s small dog to the vet and brought both daughters along for an outing. Knowing that only Eni remained at home alone, Shanki’s lust was aroused, his base instincts surging beyond his control, he snuck to the tan home with the intention of harassing, even sexually assaulting his sister-in-law.
But contrary to Shenke’s imagination, Eni firmly held her ground. She immediately scolded him sternly, warning that if Shangi didn’t leave immediately, she would call for help and report him to the police. Her decisive attitude threw Shangi into panic. Knowing he was doing something wrong, he hurriedly fled from the tan home.
The next morning, July 5th, Shangi grew more and more worried the more he thought about it. He feared that what had happened the day before would damage the relationship between the two cousins. So he decided to go to the Tan home to apologize, hoping to smooth things over before it was too late. When Shangchi arrived, Chung Hi had just returned from the nursing home while Eny was busy in the kitchen preparing lunch.
But the moment Chungi stepped through the door, he immediately flew into a rage, pointing straight at Shanki’s face and shouting for him to get out. Clearly, Eni had told him what happened the day before. Sheni desperately tried to explain, but Chung Hoy gave him no chance. In his fury, Chung Hoy charged forward, swinging his fist, completely losing all restraint.
The two men immediately began fighting, neither willing to back down. What happened next was basically consistent with Shenke’s initial statement. The scuffle spiraled out of control, emotions exploded, and tragedy occurred. The only difference in this version was Eni’s role at the time of the fight. Sheni said that Ani was cooking in the kitchen at that moment and with the heavy rainstorm outside, the sound of rain and wind drowned out everything so she didn’t hear the fight happening in the living room.
Only when things had already gone beyond any limit did Shanki realize he had accidentally caused consequences that couldn’t be undone. In his state of extreme panic and fear, he continued making one wrong decision after another, restraining first Eni and then the two nieces. Finally, with no further evidence to contradict him for the time being, police tentatively accepted Shenke’s revised statement and quickly proceeded with the next steps of the investigation.
Following his directions, authorities recovered the iron pliers, the fruit knife, and various other tools used during the crime, all of which had been buried in the area in front of the tin roofed house. Beyond that, by investigating nearby construction supply stores, they quickly identified the shop that had sold cement to Shanki.
The shop owner confirmed that on the morning of July 6th, Shanki had come in to order several bags of cement and paid extra to request sameday rush delivery. In the early morning hours of July 7th, police officially began excavating the suspicious area in front of the tin roofed house. However, the work proved far more difficult than anticipated.
By now, the cement layer on top had completely hardened. The surface as solid as stone. Ordinary manual tools were useless, forcing the work crew to use hydraulic excavators to break through the surface bit by bit. But the digging couldn’t be rushed. Investigators had to be extremely careful because even a small mistake could damage the bodies and destroy critical evidence.
For 13 consecutive hours, the excavation work slowly progressed. Finally, the burial pit that had been hidden for days appeared before everyone’s eyes. Based on preliminary measurements, the pit was approximately 8 ft long and wide, about 6 ft deep, covered on top by a layer of cement nearly 12 in thick.
Inside the pit, police found four bodies stacked on top of one another, all wearing t-shirts and shorts. After relatives came for preliminary identification, the identities of the victims were confirmed. From top to bottom, they were the younger daughter Shiaoying, the older daughter Shiawen, and at the very bottom, the couple Eni and Chung Hi.
Police initially determined that the time of the crime against the Tan family fell between approximately 11:30 a.m. and 3:02 p.m. on July 5th. That morning, Chung Haye left home to visit his mother at the nursing home and didn’t leave until around 11:30, after which he returned home
. Meanwhile, at 3:02 p.m., surveillance cameras at the ATM at Shung train station captured footage of Sheni attempting to use Eni’s bank card to withdraw money. But just as people were beginning to think the case was merely a tragedy arising from a sudden conflict, the forensic autopsy report completely changed the direction of the investigation.
The expert conclusions showed that Sheni very likely had not committed the crime in a momentary state of agitation. First was the condition of Chungi’s body. According to the examination results, Chungwi<unk>s entire body bore nearly 80 knife wounds, a number far exceeding what would be expected from an ordinary fight.
Among them, three were identified as defensive wounds. If, as Shangi claimed, Chungi had attacked first, it would be very difficult to explain why Chung Hui’s body showed such a dense pattern of wounds with such an aggressive nature. In contrast, Shanki had only a minor wound on his finger. inconsistent with the scenario of a life ordeath struggle between two evenly matched parties.
This disparity forced police to raise questions. From the forensic evidence, police deduced that the actual scenario very likely played out in the opposite direction. Shanki had struck first while Chun Hi was off guard, quickly gaining absolute advantage. Only after Chungi had lost the ability to resist did Chunki continue his assault in a concentrated barrage, leading to the victim’s death.
Second, Eni and the two daughters had all been bound with multiple layers using electrical wire, tape, clothing, and other tools. The actual cause of death for Eni and the two daughters was strangulation by esphyxiation. The murder weapon being the yellow electrical wire around their necks. Eni’s forehead showed six laceration wounds caused by blows from a hard object.
On this point as well, Sheni’s statement didn’t match. He had said that after failing to withdraw money, he returned to the Tawn home only to find the mother and daughters had already stopped breathing. But judging from the cause of death, they had clearly been actively killed. Police examined the fruit knife that had been excavated earlier and found only Shanki’s fingerprints on it.
What did this indicate? It indicated that this knife was something Shanki himself had brought and its purpose was to commit the crime. Therefore, police concluded that everything he had said before was lies. He had committed the crime with premeditation. So then what was Sheni’s true motive for the crime? Through deeper investigation, police also discovered that after committing the crime, Shenkei had taken all the valuable items from the house, including approximately 6,000 Hong Kong dollars, about $770, in cash. This detail further clarified
the financial motive hidden behind his criminal behavior. As mentioned earlier, Shanki’s family circumstances were extremely impoverished. It was precisely because of the pressure of putting food on the table that he had conceived the idea of going to Hong Kong as an illegal laborer, hoping to earn more money to change his family’s hopeless situation.
In fact, Shangi’s family’s old house in Jong Shan had seriously deteriorated, having gone years without repairs. Every time it rained heavily, the roof leaked everywhere, making daily life extremely inconvenient. Shanki had always harbored a dream of building a proper new house so his wife and children wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.
In his desperation, he noticed the ancestral home that his cousin Chung Hui owned in Hangpu Township, Jong Shan. Chung Haye had lived in Hong Kong since childhood and had virtually no intention of returning to the mainland to live. Previously, Chungi had even asked Shangchi to look after and clean up this ancestral home.
From then on, an idea gradually formed in Shunki’s mind. If he could buy that house at a low price, he wouldn’t need to spend an enormous sum building a new house. Initially, Chungi had wavered, even showing willingness at times to let Shanki move in. But when Chungi’s two aunts learned of this, they immediately and vehemently opposed it.
Under pressure from relatives, Chungi was forced to abandon the idea. The matter seemed to end there, but for Shenki, his resentment only grew deeper. He was not only angry inside, but had even once shown up at the aunts houses carrying a wooden club to talk reason, even making threats that he wouldn’t let them off easy.
With the plan to buy the ancestral home failed, Shanki turned to another option, building a new two-story house for his own family. By that point, the construction crew had already completed the foundation and was preparing to begin the main building phase. However, to finish the house would require at least another $100,000 Hong Kong dollars, about $12,800.
For Shangi at that time, this was a sum completely beyond his means. It was in these circumstances that Shangi once again thought of his cousin Chung Haye, but not with the mindset of borrowing money. In his twisted thinking, Shangi believed Chung Hi actually owed him. The reason stemmed from resentments that had accumulated over many years.
Previously, Chungwe had introduced Shangi to a construction job paying $500 Hong Kong dollars, about $64 per day, with meals and lodging included. But after working for a while, Shanki discovered the work site was skimming wages. and the actual amount he received each day was only a little over $200, about $26. This made him extremely resentful.
On top of that, during the many years he helped Chungwe renovate and improve the house in Pingche village, the wages Shangi received were only about $30 Hong Kong dollars, about $38 per day. At first, Shanki comforted himself that having a job at all was thanks to his cousin’s help. And since he frequently ate and stayed at the tanhome, earning a bit less was acceptable.
But over time, this thinking gradually warped. He began to believe that Chung Hui was treating him as cheap labor, even developing suspicions that those skimmed wages had actually gone into Chun Hui’s pocket. On November 23rd, 2010, the Hong Kong High Court officially delivered its verdict. Sheni was convicted of three counts of murder and one count of manslaughter.
The manslaughter charge applied to the older daughter, Shiawin, because when her body was found, her mouth and nose had not been sealed shut. There was insufficient legal basis to prove that Sheni had intended to kill this particular victim from the start. Ultimately, Shang Ki was sentenced to life imprisonment, the most severe sentence in the Hong Kong judicial system.
But even faced with this heavy sentence, Shangi still didn’t truly accept responsibility. He believed the punishment given to him was too harsh, stubbornly insisting that the deaths of all four family members were merely the result of a momentary impulse, manslaughter, rather than intentional. In an attempt to create mitigating circumstances, Shunki even reverted to his initial statement, continuing to fabricate the story about a secret relationship with his sister-in-law, Eni, as if the entire tragedy had originated from a love affair. This
behavior angered both the judge and the jury. The court flatly rejected all of his changed statements, viewing them as nothing more than excuses to evade responsibility. On August 8th, 2011, Shingi wrote another letter to the court arguing that as a child, he had been ill and suffered lasting effects that made him unable to control his emotions, which was why he had committed the crime on impulse.
In the letter, Shangi expressed remorse and begged the court to give him a chance, requesting a reduction from life imprisonment to a fixedterm sentence, claiming he wanted to take care of Chungi’s elderly mother. Naturally, this request was quickly rejected. Before crimes so serious and consequences so irreparable, justice would accept no further excuses.
The case closed, leaving behind a cold warning. Simmering resentment, if not controlled, can destroy not just one person, but an entire family. And that is the case for today. Thank you for watching, and we’ll see you in the next video.
