Hong Kong couple killed themselves and their 7-year-old son, police say

A Hong Kong couple in financial trouble killed themselves and their seven-year-old son, police said, by burning charcoal in their Western district flat where their bodies were found on Monday night.

The victims were discovered in Evergreen Tower in the Western Garden estate on Second Street after firefighters forced open the door of the rented flat.

Firefighters arrived at the scene after a call from the family’s foreign domestic helper at about 8.25pm, police said. The aide had returned home and detected an odd odour and was worried that there was a gas leak.

Police said the bodies of a 42-year-old father, 40-year-old mother and their seven-year-old son were found on a bed in a sleeping room, where there was burned charcoal.

The couple wrote a suicide note in which they indicated that they owed debts to a financial firm, police said.

Police chief inspector Hung Kit-har of Western district said the police believed the couple – a clerk and a property agent respectively – had drugged their son, a primary two pupil, to let him sleep before they burned charcoal in a closed bedroom.

Drugs were found on a table in the living room. Their bodies had no apparent wounds and there were no signs of ransacking in the flat, police said.

Hung said that investigators believed the trio died on Monday. Autopsies are expected to be performed.

Firefighters confirmed that there had been no gas leak.

The Western district crime squad was handling the investigation.

Mother arrested on suspicion of killing son in Tseung Kwan O flat

The case was the second suspected of involving murder and suicide in a Hong Kong household in three days.

On Sunday, a 55-year-old mother was arrested on suspicion of killing her 23-year-old son in their home in Tseung Kwan O before she tried to hang herself. She was charged with one count of murder on Monday and is to appear in Kwun Tong Court on Tuesday.

If you, or someone you know, are having suicidal thoughts, help is available. For Hong Kong, dial [phone] for The Samaritans or [phone] for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on [phone]. For a list of other nations’ helplines, see this page

More from South China Morning Post:

• Elderly Hongkongers driven to thoughts of murder and suicide by cost of living beg government for help
• Mother thought to have attempted suicide arrested on suspicion of murdering son in Hong Kong
• Man murdered his girlfriend, barricaded himself in their Hong Kong flat and committed suicide just before Lunar New Year, police believe

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