Ex-husband dismembered influencer’s body and boiled it with vegetables to mask the smell: shocking details of Abby Choi’s murder

The ex-husband of Hong Kong influencer Abby Choi bought a meat grinder and boiled the murdered woman’s remains with carrots and radish in an attempt to disguise the smell of decomposition. The shocking details of the brutal crime were heard in a Hong Kong court, where the trial over the murder of the 28-year-old model and social media star is underway, the Daily Mail reports.

In February 2023, police discovered fragments of Choi’s dismembered body at a house in a suburb of Hong Kong. Her legs were found inside a refrigerator, while her skull and several ribs were discovered in a soup pot. The crime shocked the Asian financial hub.

Choi, who had more than 140,000 followers on Instagram, had shared photos from Paris Fashion Week shortly before her death. Her life was tragically cut short in February 2023.

The defendants are the influencer’s 31-year-old ex-husband, Alex Kwong, his 68-year-old father, Kwong Kau, and his 35-year-old brother, Anthony Kwong. All three have pleaded not guilty to murder. The trial began on Wednesday, and they face life imprisonment if convicted.

Prosecutor Charlotte Draycott told the court that, in the days before Choi was reported missing, the defendants purchased equipment that prosecutors allege was later used to dismember and dispose of her body. Among the items was a meat grinder.

The court also heard testimony from neighbors who recalled hearing the sound of an electric chainsaw operating on February 21, 2023. They said that a strong, foul smell later began coming from a ground-floor apartment in the building.

Prosecutors have linked the sound of the chainsaw and the foul odor to the defendants’ alleged attempts to dispose of Choi’s body.

According to the prosecution, the woman’s remains were boiled not for consumption but in an attempt to make them unrecognizable. Carrots and radish were deliberately added to the pot to mask the smell produced by decomposition and the cooking of the remains.

Alex Kwong was arrested on February 25 while attempting to leave Hong Kong. His father and brother had been arrested a day earlier. Alex and Abby Choi had two children together.

As evidence, prosecutors presented the jury with a hammer. According to forensic evidence, blunt-force injuries to Choi’s skull were consistent with the shape of the hammer.

One of the alleged motives for the killing, according to prosecutors, was a financial dispute between Choi and her former husband’s family over a luxury property worth HK$60 million (about $7.7 million, or £5.8 million), which had been paid for by the influencer herself.

Prosecutors alleged that several years earlier, Choi had decided to put the property in the name of her former father-in-law in order to avoid higher taxes. However, relations between the woman and the Kwong family began to deteriorate in 2022 after she attempted to sell the luxury apartment.

Prosecutors said former police sergeant Kwong Kau was “extremely upset and angry” about Choi’s intention to sell the property. According to the prosecution, he decided to kill her in order to keep the apartment and then devised a plan for the crime together with his sons.

The trial is expected to continue until at least December.