The High Court heard Wednesday that the late socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung lost contact with her husband at 2pm on the day she disappeared and her phone was last traced to Tai Po.
The testimony came on the 16th day of the trial in the murder and dismemberment case that happened in February 2023.
Chris Tam Fong-chun told the court that he left for work around 10am on February 21, 2023, while Choi was still sleeping.
The two later discussed dinner plans around 2pm on WhatsApp with a friend, Kenny, and Choi agreed to a spicy crab dinner in Tsim Sha Tsui.
In WhatsApp voice messages played in court, Choi told Tam that when he was free, she had something to tell him about Damon -- her former brother-in-law Kwong Kong-kit.
However, Choi did not respond when Tam messaged her about a table he had reserved for 8.15pm.
Tam added that his message went undelivered after 2pm with only a single checkmark, assuming her phone had run out of battery or was turned off.
He then sent her several messages concerning her phone around 4pm and was startled when one message suddenly showed two checkmarks, which he took as a sign it had been turned back on.
He said messages between 4.13pm and 4.18pm showed two checkmarks, after which they all reverted to a single checkmark.
As Choi's phone briefly regained signal, Tam opened their location-sharing app and saw her last known location was Tai Po.
After repeated calls went unanswered, he said he got worried and went to the address himself.
Based on Choi’s daily routine, Tam said she should have picked up the children and been back at the Kadoorie Hill apartment by then. Tam recounted returning to the Kadoorie Hill flat at 6.30pm, where he found Choi’s former mother-in-law Jenny Li Sui-heung, her ex-husband Alex Kwong Kong-chi, and former father-in-law Kwong Kau.
When he asked if anyone knew where Choi was, he recalled Li telling him he had reported to the police too quickly, saying "the kidnapper might only want money."
Tam said he initially believed Li meant Choi might have been kidnapped, and was asking how he could have gone to the police before the kidnappers reached out. But he now sees her remarks as an attempt to deflect attention.
"She might have wanted to distance herself," he said, "to suggest she had nothing to do with what the Kwong family did."
Alex Kwong, Kwong Kong-kit and their father, Kwong Kau, are jointly charged with Choi’s murder. All three have pleaded not guilty. The brothers have pleaded guilty to a charge of preventing the lawful burial of a body, while Kwong Kau has denied that charge.
