Jury delivers open verdict on Chan Yin-lam death

A jury returned an open verdict today in the death of Hong Kong Design Institute student Chan Yin-lam, following an 11-day inquest at the Coroner's Court.

The five-member jury of  three women and two men  were unable to determine the causes and circumstances of Chan's death. Their verdict was unanimous.

Chan's naked body was found in the waters off Yau Tong on September 22, days after she was last seen by friends and captured on security cameras at various locations. 

Magistrate Ko Wai-hung ruled out suicide and homicide as possible causes of Chan's demise, saying the evidence was insufficient.  Ko explained that the jury could not rule Chan's death as a suicide "without a reasonable doubt". 

At the inquest, which had attracted much public attention, 32 witnesses testified.

Chan's death had sparked conspiracy theories suggesting she fell victim to alleged police brutality during the year-long social unrest, despite repeated denials by police that Chan had been arrested over the anti-government protests. 

Chan's mother, Ho Pui-yee, also asserted in a television program that her daughter took her own life before the inquiry.

Previous hearings had suggested that Chan suffered from the initial stages of psychosis a month before her decease. 

Pathologists who performed the autopsy infered drowning as a possible cause of Chan's death, but they could not proceed to further forensic examinations due to the decomposed state of her body.