Identities of women found dead in HK confirmed to be Malaysians

Emergency care: Huang getting medical aid after she and daughter Xu (inset) were found unconscious in the car.

PETALING JAYA: It is confirmed! The two women found dead in a car in Ma On Shan, Hong Kong on Friday were Malaysians.

A source in Hong Kong said both women held Malaysian passports.

Hong Kong news portal, the Apple Daily, had reported that 47-year-old Huang Siu Fen and her second daughter Xu Li Lin left their home in Sai Kung at about 2.30pm.

A jogger first noticed the car parked with its engine running at a road side about 1.4km from their home.

The jogger became suspicious when she saw the same car still parked there when she returned to the area 45 minutes later.

Curious, she went to check.

She was shocked to find the two unconscious women in the car and called for help.

Police and firemen rushed to the scene and broke the car window.

The two were pronounced dead in the hospital.

It was reported that Huang had three other children aged 20, 13 and 12. Her husband was said to be a professor at a Chinese university and also works as an anaesthetist.

China Press reported that according to police sources, Huang and her husband had marital problems recently.

The South China Morning Post reported that the two were buckled up in their seats.

A police source told the news agency that initial investigations showed there were no signs of a fight or struggle in the vehicle, and no obvious injuries were found on the duo.

The source also said no suicide note was found and that the case did not appear to be suicide.

Lo Kok-keung of Polytechnic University’s department of mechanical engineering told the South China Morning Post that if the incident was not suicide, the most likely theory would be that there was a crack in the car’s exhaust pipe.

Such a crack could possibly allow poisonous gases to seep into the passenger compartment of the car, he said.

He added that if the women were asleep, they might not have been aware of the gas and might have passed out after breathing in too much carbon monoxide.

“That’s why you should never sleep in a car with the air conditioner on, because it will create a comfortable environment and you tend not to wake up easily if things should go wrong,” Lo said.