Macau police have arrested two people including a 48-year-old Hong Kong woman in connection with the murder of a man whose body was found in a hotel room.
The body of the 40-year-old victim, a Hongkonger, was discovered on Wednesday in the bathroom of a luxury hotel in Cotai with a 20cm knife wound in the neck, Macau’s judiciary police said.
The victim also sustained a fractured skull and multiple injuries on his body, police spokesman Ho Chan-nam said on Thursday.
Broken pieces of a bloodstained blade measuring 6cm were found at the crime scene, which appeared to have been cleaned up.
Macau media reported the hotel was the Wynn Palace. Police said they believed the victim had been engaged in illegal money changing operations at Macau casinos for more than half a year.
They said the man had won money at a casino on Wednesday morning and exchanged casino chips for about HK$2.5 million in cash.
He returned to his hotel room at around 10am. About five minutes later, a 40-year-old mainland Chinese man entered the room and stayed for 1½ hours before taking a bag away and meeting the Hong Kong woman in the hotel lobby. He handed over the bag, which was believed to contain cash.
The mainland suspect returned to the room at noon and left the hotel by taxi at about 3pm with two bags, Ho said.
Officials said the suspect had worked under the victim in the money changing business for around three months.
Police received a report about the discovery of the victim’s body at around 5pm on Wednesday.
Both suspects were stopped later that day. Officers recovered at least HK$1.3 million in cash from the male suspect and at his Cotai flat.
Blood-stained clothing and two mobile phones belonging to the victim were found outside a supermarket in Cotai. Officers said they believed the male suspect had changed clothes twice after the murder.
The Hong Kong woman was suspected to have laundered some of the stolen cash through casinos and wired funds to mainland bank accounts via other money changers.
Both suspects, who have been detained for murder, robbery and money laundering, said they were unemployed.
