Missing Briton dead; murder suspect held
March 20, 2011 Sunday
John Carney and Lana Lam

A 64-year-old British tourist missing on Lamma Island since Tuesday morning has been found dead in an apartment on the island. Last night police said they had arrested a 29-year-old expatriate at the Central ferry piers in connection with a murder inquiry.

A search for Janet Gilson began on Lamma Island on Thursday involving 40 police and Civil Aid Service officers with tracker dogs. Gilson (pictured) was reported missing by her niece, Julia Fareed, at about 1am on Wednesday.

The arrested man was detained on a ferry travelling from Lamma to Central yesterday. Last night a spokesman said the man was being held overnight for questioning.

Witnesses who were on the ferry said police in a motor launch stopped the vessel midway through the journey, boarded it, identified the man and arrested him. "The police thought that the man was armed so they acted very quickly, but he did not put up a fight," one witness said. "Initially when the ferry stopped the man was walking around all over the place but he was very calm and did not seem concerned at all.

"It took about half an hour to get off the ferry when we got to Central. There was police everywhere."

A Lamma Island resident who was waiting at the Central ferry pier just after 6pm said she saw a handcuffed man with his head covered by a hood escorted by police off the ferry.

She said there had been a strong police presence around the island during the day and that the ferry piers on Lamma Island had also been under heavy guard.

Gilson, who arrived in Hong Kong to stay with her niece on March 5, went missing after leaving the family home in Yung Shue Wan on Tuesday morning.

"Went to Sok Ku Wan. Will have something to eat here then ferry to Aberdeen. I will call when can come back. Love Janet" was the last phone message she sent to her niece on Tuesday morning. After her aunt failed to turn up by Wednesday morning, the niece reported her missing at the Lamma police post in Yung Shue Wan.

Fareed said she had a very good relationship with her aunt, who had devoted her life to the Salvation Army. "She is much like a second mother to me," she said.

Initially Senior Inspector Kwok Chi-keung, the officer in charge of the Lamma police post, said Gilson appeared to have left the flat in a hurry, without her glasses or usual shoes, leaving her bedroom untidy and a bathroom water heater on.

Kwok said it was not known whether she caught a ferry to Aberdeen on the day.

I wish I was as smart as the armchair detectives on this forum.

If they had been real detectives the case would have been solved in minutes

picture the scene

Woman comes into police station to report her aunt has gone missing on her way to Sok Kwu Wan.

Right says inspector "Dory" " clearly thats a ruse she isn't missing she's been murdered., what do you say chief inspector "lllturtles"

"quite correct, that woman's husband is a known violent man, he murdered her and probably hid the body behind the sofa"

"get round there and search the place top to bottom and don't bother doing a search on the island for a missing person , that would clearly be a waste of police time and resources and we wouldn't want to be accused of incompetence"

case closed

Dim Sum anyone

Indeed, it is far more informative than SCMP, except for the reference to hedge fund companies in Yung Shue Wan, and the British Embassy.

Husband of niece is Lamma murder suspect
Danny Mok; Mar 21, 2011

The niece of the British woman found dead on Lamma island said yesterday that the man arrested in connection with her aunt's suspected murder was her husband.
Julia Fareed, who reported her aunt's disappearance last week, described Janet Gilson as a "placid and quiet lady" and "not somebody argumentative in any manner".

Fareed confirmed that the suspect arrested on Saturday, after Gilson's body was found hidden in her flat in Lamma's Yung Shue Wan area, was her husband.

"I don't have the answer for that question," she said, when asked whether she believed her husband was connected to her aunt's death.

Gilson, from Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, was found dead inside a sofa in Fareed's apartment on Saturday, three days after police had first searched the premises following her report of her aunt's disappearance.

Police said on Saturday that they had arrested "a 29-year-old man in connection with a suspected murder case in which a 64-year-old missing woman was killed on Lamma island". The suspect was being detained "pending further inquiries".

Fareed wept as she described the case as "extremely distressing". She described her aunt as her "second mother" and said that she had devoted her life to working for the Salvation Army.

Fareed, who works for a financial services company, said Gilson had been on her fifth visit to Hong Kong and that her aunt had stayed with her and her husband on her four previous visits to the city.

She said her husband, whom she had met in the Maldives when she lived there, and with whom she had met up again when she moved to Hong Kong five years ago, was unemployed and depended on her financially. She said she had been separated from her husband and was expecting a divorce judgment next month.

Fareed said she had identified her aunt's body yesterday and had made a statement to police, whom she expected to meet again in the coming days. Fareed's flat was cordoned off yesterday, as she stayed with friends off Lamma.

Lamma murder suspect due to appear in court

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A 29-year-old man will appear at Eastern Magistrates' Court today charged with the murder of a British woman on Lamma Island.

Janet Gilson, 64, was found stuffed in a couch at the flat of her niece on Saturday, four days after going missing.

Gilson is said to have had bruises on her neck and her head.

But a police spokeswoman said yesterday that while a post-mortem examination has been conducted more tests are needed to determine the cause of death.

Among the other tests, she added, are drug and toxicology checks, which are carried out as a matter of procedure.

Police arrested the man, the ex- husband of Gilson's niece, Julia Fareed, 1 hours after the body was discovered on Saturday.

The man, who is originally from the Maldives, lives on Lamma Island.

Gilson was last seen in her niece's home at Tai Yuen village a week ago.

Fareed received a message from her that she had gone hiking in Sok Kwu Wan and intended to go to Aberdeen.

Fareed, who visited Victoria Public Mortuary in Western District yesterday to identify Gilson's body, was in tears and refused to answer any questions.

She said earlier that she had a good relationship with Gilson and looked upon her as a mother.

Fareed is married with a young daughter.

Gilson, a retired British Salvation Army major, arrived in Hong Kong on March 5 for a two-week vacation. She lived at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. DENNIS CHONG

as a 'no plea' was entered by the murderer, sorry Ahmed, yesterday in court, why was the hearing adjourned to allow an identification parade? Is Julia going to have to identify him? what purpose does this serve in the proceedings?

Here's a question or two for amateur sleuths:

How is it possible to live in a 700 sq foot flat for three or four days in humid weather without realising there's a dead body in the sofa? Or was nobody using the flat during that time?

As I live on Lamma, colleagues expect me to know the answers!

What I'd like to know is who discovered the body, or how it was discovered. Was it the tenants? A sniffer dog? Police doing a double-check?