A financially troubled couple running a renovation company died in a suicide pact at a Ta Kwu Ling village house yesterday.
Their bodies were discovered after a friend was first alerted by a message in which they hinted unhappiness due to financial problems and went to check on them around 11am.
No one answered the door, so he reported to the police.
Firemen broke into the house and found the wooden door taped shut and a man and a woman laying in bed with burned charcoal beside them.
Police officers found a suicide note in the house and classified the case as "dead bodies found."
The couple were 47-year-old Dick Wong Hon-chau and his 49-year-old girlfriend Enda Lee Man-wah, a source said.
A neighbor said they had been together for a long time.
They run a renovation company and undertook work from nearby housing estates and village houses.
Another friend said they moved to Ta Kwu Ling six months ago.
He said Wong was a hardworking man who had no bad habits and was quite cheerful.
Although Lee had suffered from cancer, she had recovered and was in good spirits, he added.
Wu, a neighbor, said Wong had helped with his rooftop leakage and that he was an honest and responsible businessman.
"I really didn't expect this to happen, I talked to him when he moved in, and he was putting posters up around the village looking for customers," he said.
In a separate case, police have arrested the Filipino driver of a wealthy couple for assisting them in their suicide attempt, after a man with terminal pancreatic cancer and his wife burned charcoal and took drugs in their car earlier in the week.
The man died and his wife remains in a critical condition.
According to sources, the 66-year-old husband, Ng, was an executive director of two listed companies in Hong Kong and Singapore many years ago.
He lived with his 62-year-old wife, Kwong, on Tregunter Path, Mid-Levels, and hired the 48-year-old Filipino driver.
On Monday morning, Ng fell unconscious, but his wife asked the driver to carry him to the car instead of seeking medical help.
Kwong then asked the driver to drive them to a car park on South Bay Road before telling him to leave.
When the driver, who became suspicious, returned and found the couple unconscious in the car, he extinguished the charcoal and informed their nephew to call the police.
Officers have classified the case as a suicide pact and aiding or abetting suicide.