A former anesthesiology professor in Hong Kong stands accused of murder — which he denies — in the 2015 poisoning deaths of his wife and 16-year-old daughter, according to multiple news outlets.
Prosecutors have described the killings as the “deliberate and calculated” work of 53-year-old Khaw Kim-sun, then an associate professor at Chinese University and a senior medical officer at Hong Kong’s Prince of Wales Hospital, the South China Morning Post reported.
Authorities contend that Khaw, under the guise of a scientific experiment, ordered carbon monoxide and then filled two yoga balls with the deadly gas and left one of the balls, unplugged, in the trunk of wife Wong Siew-fing’s yellow Mini Cooper, according to the Morning Post and the New York Times.
Wong, 47, and their daughter Lily Khaw Li-ling were reportedly found unconscious in the front seats of the vehicle on May 22, 2015, by a passing female jogger who had grown disturbed by the scene: As she later recalled, mother and child appeared to be sleeping and the windshield wipers were on, but it was not raining.
They died within hours, at the same hospital where Khaw worked, the Morning Post reports. Wong and Lily had 50 times the normal level of carbon monoxide in their blood.
Khaw, who was arrested in September, is charged with two counts of murder, according to the Morning Post. He has pleaded not guilty, according to the Associated Press.
The case initially seemed to offer more questions than answers, but investigators zeroed in on the yoga ball in the trunk — and, eventually, Khaw — after ruling out possible mechanical issues, according to the Morning Post.
At trial, prosecutors have argued Khaw was having an affair with a student and his wife knew about it. Though the two were estranged and Wong had made some peace with her husband’s mistress, according to court testimony, she did not want to get a divorce.
While the couple’s 22-year-old daughter, Khaw May-ling, spoke warmly of Khaw in court — and asked the judge if she could stay after she testified to “support her father” — she also said he held his children to exactingly high standards, according to the Times.
“My father discouraged me from taking anti-depressants because he didn’t believe that I was depressed,” she said.
Khaw has volleyed wildly in his emotions during his trial, breaking into a smile when his eldest recalled a shared family joke and weeping when his daughter’s autopsy was described.
Authorities believe that Khaw went through with his plan to poison Wong not realizing that Lily would be out of school that day and with her mother.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
“The last thing the accused wanted was for his 16-year-old to die,” prosecutor Andrew Bruce said on Wednesday, according to the Morning Post.
But, he told the nine-member jury: “If that person knew what was in the car was carbon monoxide and knew it was a dangerous gas likely to kill you, you can confirm this person had homicide on his mind.”
Khaw has said that daughter Lily may have used the yoga ball in the car in her own suicide plot — an explanation that prosecutor Bruce dismissed, according to the Times.
Khaw also said the carbon monoxide was to be used in fighting a rat problem at the family’s home, which has been disputed by authorities, the Morning Post reports.
His trial continues Tuesday. His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment by PEOPLE.
Source: Read Full Article