Sunday, February 19, 2006
Headless model found in topless bar (or the Lonesome Death of Annie Pang)
I've always loved that first headline from the -- I think, NY Post -- sometime in the '70s. Gotta Google it later for the specifics but nonetheless this week I'm covering, sort of, the HK equivalent.
There's a week long coroner's inquest that begins Monday to try to get to the bottom of why the separated skeletal remains of a 31-year-old former HK model named Annie Pang apparently languished for about 4 years in an apartment rented by a wealthy businessman named John Fang. It's further complicated by the fact that Fang's sister is a prominent HK politician named Anson Chan. Lots of high level connections which explain why although Annie died in 1995 and her remains -- skull in a waste basket, body on the floor -- weren't discovered until more than four years after she died, in that "Mr Fang failed to see the skeleton when he entered the flat (in 1999) to close some windows the day before Pang was discovered; and that the windows had possibly been open for more than four years yet the flat remained free of obvious water damage."
"The owner stated that he never saw the skeleton of the deceased lying, uncovered on the floor beside the bed," said a prosecutor who kept pushing for an inquest.
Oddly though Fang found the apartment in such a mess otherwise and ... "instead of trying to find out what happened to Pang," whom he had not seen alive for four years, he "ordered an employee to go to the flat the next day to clear it out."
Surprise, surprise. When the hapless cleaner arrived the first thing spotted was a headless skeleton on the floor and the head in waste basket. "A gold tooth and two digit bones were missing," read a coroner's report.
Annie's mother and sisters through the years have claimed that she had received death threats and been beaten by a so-far undentified law clerk associated with Fang.
Fang himself has said "I wanted to help Ms Pang after I got to know her, so I provided a safe haven for her, but it is so surprising that I wanted to say away from a drug addict? People like to equate money with sex and power--nobody believed why I wanted to help her. She used to cause trouble at my soliciter's firm and also at the police station ever time she tried to kill herself. I'm generous to men, too; does that mean I'm gay?"
Um, no. It doesn't mean you're Hong Kong's answer to Mother Teresa, either. And it especially doesn't explain why you continued to pay rent on the place for more than four years until one of your toadies got the thankless assignment to "discover" her bones.
Until now there had been several attempts to unravel this mystery, all previously blocked by a coroner who "decided not to hold an inquest for fear of exposing Pang's drug habit, gambling habit, medical conditions, suicidal tendencies, complicated love affairs and casual sexual attitude."
Why sure. Of course. Explains it all. Thoughtful fellow that he was, he was simply looking out for Annie's reputation which was already -- literally -- garbage.
I've always loved that first headline from the -- I think, NY Post -- sometime in the '70s. Gotta Google it later for the specifics but nonetheless this week I'm covering, sort of, the HK equivalent.
There's a week long coroner's inquest that begins Monday to try to get to the bottom of why the separated skeletal remains of a 31-year-old former HK model named Annie Pang apparently languished for about 4 years in an apartment rented by a wealthy businessman named John Fang. It's further complicated by the fact that Fang's sister is a prominent HK politician named Anson Chan. Lots of high level connections which explain why although Annie died in 1995 and her remains -- skull in a waste basket, body on the floor -- weren't discovered until more than four years after she died, in that "Mr Fang failed to see the skeleton when he entered the flat (in 1999) to close some windows the day before Pang was discovered; and that the windows had possibly been open for more than four years yet the flat remained free of obvious water damage."
"The owner stated that he never saw the skeleton of the deceased lying, uncovered on the floor beside the bed," said a prosecutor who kept pushing for an inquest.
Oddly though Fang found the apartment in such a mess otherwise and ... "instead of trying to find out what happened to Pang," whom he had not seen alive for four years, he "ordered an employee to go to the flat the next day to clear it out."
Surprise, surprise. When the hapless cleaner arrived the first thing spotted was a headless skeleton on the floor and the head in waste basket. "A gold tooth and two digit bones were missing," read a coroner's report.
Annie's mother and sisters through the years have claimed that she had received death threats and been beaten by a so-far undentified law clerk associated with Fang.
Fang himself has said "I wanted to help Ms Pang after I got to know her, so I provided a safe haven for her, but it is so surprising that I wanted to say away from a drug addict? People like to equate money with sex and power--nobody believed why I wanted to help her. She used to cause trouble at my soliciter's firm and also at the police station ever time she tried to kill herself. I'm generous to men, too; does that mean I'm gay?"
Um, no. It doesn't mean you're Hong Kong's answer to Mother Teresa, either. And it especially doesn't explain why you continued to pay rent on the place for more than four years until one of your toadies got the thankless assignment to "discover" her bones.
Until now there had been several attempts to unravel this mystery, all previously blocked by a coroner who "decided not to hold an inquest for fear of exposing Pang's drug habit, gambling habit, medical conditions, suicidal tendencies, complicated love affairs and casual sexual attitude."
Why sure. Of course. Explains it all. Thoughtful fellow that he was, he was simply looking out for Annie's reputation which was already -- literally -- garbage.
# posted by Justin @ 3:01 AM 
