Suicide pact sees wife join terminal hubby

A couple took their own lives in a suspected suicide at a holiday villa on Cheung Chau that is infamous for suicides among the lovelorn.

The husband and wife, both 56, were found dead in a room at Miami Resort on Beach Road at noon yesterday. They were reported missing by their son a day before.

They were found lying on the floor with a plate of burnt coal nearby, according to police who went to the scene after receiving a report from a hotel employee.

A suicide note was found, with officers believing there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding their deaths.

The couple went missing after leaving their residence at Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O early Saturday, prompting their son to seek help from the police in the evening.

The husband is understood to have suffered from a chronic disease for quite a while, and had long searched for a cure.

He is said to have broached with his family at one stage the idea of suicide and doing so on Cheung Chau.

The couple were said to be happily married, with the wife choosing to die along with her husband.

The son, who told the police that his parents searched online for the holiday villa's information, questioned why officers were not able to find the couple until it was too late.

The police apparently told the son that they did not have enough manpower at the local police station for a search.

Miami Resort, formerly known as Bela Vista Villa, used to have a reputation as a "suicide resort" in the 1990s and 2000s, with dozens of tourists taking their own lives there by burning coal.

Its owner and local residents tried to preempt them with such measures as refusing to take guests who came alone or looked sad, as well as couples who were having arguments. Coal was not sold at supermarkets nearby.

Separately, a man and his 17-year-old son who went fishing on Saturday night ended up netting the body of a woman.

They were fishing off South Horizons at 8pm, when the son's hook caught something heavy, which turned out to be a woman dressed in white.

The body drifted away in the water when the pair tried to drag it to the shore, before they called the police, who spent over an hour retrieving the corpse.

The body was confirmed to be a 22-year-old woman who went missing a day before and was last seen in her residence in Wong Tai Sin. It is understood that she told her family about feeling unhappy at work.