Hong Kong woman arrested in attempted murder and suicide after husband fatally injured in apartment

Hong Kong police have arrested a woman who allegedly killed her husband in their apartment in Tseung Kwan O and then attempted suicide.

Police said the 32-year-old woman stabbed her husband, a 30-year-old IT engineer, with a 30-centimetre-long fruit knife at around 11 p.m. on Saturday as he slept on a sofa in their apartment in Lohas Park Phase 9.

Tsang Chun-kit, deputy commander of Tseung Kwan O district, said on Sunday that the woman, who works as an office worker, has been suffering from severe depression since the birth of her son.

“The woman’s mental state is an important focus (of the investigation) as she suffered from severe depression after the birth of the child and regularly visited a private psychiatrist,” he said.

Tsang said the couple had been married for five years and had shown no signs of financial problems, adding that police had no previous incidents involving the couple.

The one-and-a-half-year-old boy was in the care of his paternal grandfather at the time of the incident, he said.

Tsang said the woman later called her father-in-law to tell him about the stabbing and that she wanted to commit suicide, after which he called the police.

The officers rushed to the crime scene and discovered the husband lying unconscious on the couch, covered in blood. They found the wife in the couple’s bedroom. A fruit knife was also seized at the crime scene.

The couple were taken to Tseung Kwan O Hospital, where the husband was pronounced dead at 12.31am on Sunday. The woman, who suffered no superficial injuries, was arrested and remains in police custody.

The case has been classified as murder and attempted suicide. The Tseung Kwan O District Criminal Investigation Department is investigating.

Psychiatrist May Lam Mei-ling, president of the Hong Kong Mental Wellness Association, said it is rare for people with depression to be murderous, but the likelihood is higher if the patient is severely depressed and also has psychotic symptoms such as delusions.

According to Lam, about 70 percent of new mothers experience “postnatal depression” in the first two weeks after giving birth, feeling depressed and suffering from insomnia due to hormonal changes. However, in about 10 to 15 percent of mothers, symptoms of depression persisted even after this time.

She said this group often feels helpless, hopeless and worthless, blames themselves for not being good mothers and worries excessively about their babies.

Typically, a mother will have trouble sleeping and will wake up in the middle of the night to check if her baby is still breathing because she is afraid something bad might happen to him.

“Some mothers try to kill themselves or even bring their babies with them if they are convinced the babies will not survive and there is nothing they can do about it,” she said. “But killing someone else is quite rare.”

According to Lam, new mothers are at higher risk of developing postnatal depression if they have a history of mental health problems and the pregnancy was unexpected.

Prenatal complications and congenital diseases of the baby as well as a lack of nursing support after birth would also increase the risk.

Lam stressed that postnatal depression is preventable if symptoms are detected early, and that the disease is curable with medication and therapy. She urged family members of new mothers to be alert to these symptoms and seek professional help as soon as possible.