Hong Kong woman arrested in murder-attempted suicide case after husband fatally slashed in flat
- Police say woman had suffered from severe depression since birth of their son, with her mental state being ‘major direction’ of investigation
Hong Kong police have arrested a woman who allegedly killed her husband at their flat in Tseung Kwan O before attempting to take her own life.
The force said the woman, 32, allegedly slashed her husband, a 30-year-old IT engineer, with a 30cm-long fruit knife as he slept on a couch at their flat in Lohas Park Phase 9 at around 11pm on Saturday.
Tsang Chun-kit, assistant commander for Tseung Kwan O district, said on Sunday that the woman, who works as a clerk, had been suffering from severe depression since the birth of her son.
“The woman’s mental state is a major direction [of the investigation], as she had severe depression after giving birth to the child and had been regularly seeing a private psychiatrist,” he said.
Tsang said the couple had been married for five years and showed no signs of having financial problems, while police had no record of any past incidents involving the pair.
The boy, aged 1½ years, was being looked after by his paternal grandfather when the incident happened, he said.
Tsang said the woman later called her father-in-law to tell him about the slashing and that she was going to take her own life, prompting him to call police.
Officers rushed to the scene and discovered the husband covered in blood and lying unconscious on the couch, before finding the woman in the couple’s bedroom. A fruit knife was also seized at the scene.
The couple were taken to Tseung Kwan O Hospital, where the husband was pronounced dead at 12.31am on Sunday. The woman, who had 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 crime squad is investigating.
Psychiatrist May Lam Mei-ling, president of the Hong Kong Mental Wellness Association, said it was rare for people with depression to be homicidal, but the chance was higher when the patient was severely depressed and also had psychotic symptoms, including delusional thinking.
Lam said about 70 per cent of new mothers experienced “postnatal blues” in the first two weeks after giving birth, feeling depressed and suffering from insomnia due to hormonal changes. But about 10 to 15 per cent would have persistent symptoms of depression beyond this period.
She said this group would often feel helpless, hopeless and worthless, blaming themselves for not being good mothers and worrying excessively about their babies.
Typically, a mother would struggle to sleep well and wake up in the middle of the night to check whether her baby was still breathing, worrying something bad might happen to the child.
“Some mothers will try to kill themselves, or even bring their babies along when they have a strong belief that the infants will not survive and they can do nothing about it,” she said. “But killing someone else is quite rare.”
Lam said new mothers had a higher chance of developing postnatal depression if they had a record of mental health problems and if the pregnancy was not expected.
Prenatal complications and congenital conditions of the baby, as well as a lack of caregiving support after birth, would also increase the risk.
Lam stressed that postnatal depression was preventable if symptoms were detected early and the condition was curable with medication and therapies. She urged family members of new mothers to watch out for those symptoms and seek professional help as soon as possible.
