Crime | Man allegedly killed himself while held in hotel room

Evidence indicates that a man found dead last Friday inside a hotel bathtub in ZAPE had most likely committed suicide, police authorities said Saturday.
The initial investigation found that the mainland man and his female friend, who arrived in the region last month to gamble, owed loan sharks a gambling debt and were being guarded by the loan shark’s security staff in the hotel room.
The two gamblers were subjected to confinement in a residential tower earlier this month after losing HKD30,000, which was later settled by the deceased’s son.
However, after borrowing and then losing another HKD30,000 from the same illegal moneylender, the pair was again confined in an Emperor Hotel room with two lookouts on Friday at around 6 a.m.
The police initially believed the case to be a murder, but now suspect that the two guards employed by the syndicate discovered the lifeless man, who had locked himself in the bathroom, lying in his own blood with a fruit knife.
The two suspects escaped the hotel room when the female friend woke up and called the police through the hotel’s security guards.
“We aren’t ruling out the possibility of suicide, judging by the angle of the wound and coroners’ opinions. Yet the exact cause for the death has to be determined by an autopsy,” said Tam Weng Keong, Judiciary Police spokesperson.
The man was declared dead at the hospital at 7.15 a.m.
The police on Friday arrested the alleged chief of the loan-sharking syndicate. The search for the two men is still ongoing.