The Judiciary Police (PJ) on Thursday announced a suspected suicide case in which a 16-year-old schoolgirl and a 35-year-old man, both locals, were found lying dead in a guestroom of a guesthouse in San Kio district Thursday morning, with two woks of charcoal that had burnt out next to them.
The bodies were discovered after the schoolgirl’s parents went to a police station with their daughter’s suicide note Thursday morning, to report their daughter missing.
While the police revealed that the schoolgirl was enrolled in a school in the peninsula’s northern district, they said that they were still investigating her relationship with the male victim. However, Choi Nong Chi Tai School confirmed to the media last night that the girl was a pupil and the man a teacher at the school.
The Judiciary Police first announced the case in a statement Thursday afternoon, shortly after which they revealed further details about the case during a regular press conference.
According to the PJ statement, the parents of a 16-year-old female teenager went to the PJ headquarters at 10:15 a.m. taking their daughter’s suicide note with them and reported that their daughter had gone missing.
At 11:20 a.m., PJ officers found a 35-year-old man, surnamed Un, and the teenager, surnamed Tam, lying fully clothed on the floor in the bathroom of a guestroom of an inn in the San Kio neighbourhood, with two woks of charcoal that had burnt out next to them, according to the statement.
The PJ officers called the Fire Services Bureau (CB), after which paramedics arrived at the scene where both were pronounced dead, the statement said.
The preliminary examination of the bodies showed that neither had any injuries that could indicate foul play, the statement said.
‘Discovery of bodies’
The statement said that the Judiciary Police have provisionally classified the case as “discovery of bodies”. The exact causes of death are to be determined by the official autopsies, the statement said.
Thursday’s PJ statement did not reveal that the female teenager was a schoolgirl, and neither did it reveal the male victim’s occupation. The statement did not provide any information about their possible relationship.
During Thursday’s regular press conference, PJ spokesman Chan Wun Man said that the 16-year-old female teenager had been enrolled in a school in the peninsula’s northern district and that the police were still investigating her relationship with the 35-year-old man.
Chan also said that the police have informed the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) and the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) of the incident.
Chan said that PJ officers discovered the two victims after scrutinising the police forces’ citywide CCTV camera system, based on the report by the schoolgirl’s parents.
According to Chan, the female teenager was not wearing her school uniform when she was found lying dead. Chan reaffirmed that the
police were still investigating the circumstances of the case.
Local media reports identified the inn where both died as Tin Lai Guesthouse in Rua do Almirante Costa Cabral – a street running from the private Kiang Wu Hospital to Avenida do Coronel Mesquita.
Choi Nong Chi Tai School Principal Vong Kuoc Ieng told government-owned broadcaster TDM last night that the teenager, enrolled, in Form 4, had been at the school since kindergarten and that her younger sister also attends the school. Vong said that the 35-year-old teacher had been teaching in the school for 13 years.
Vong said that he was very shocked and saddened by the “sudden” incident. Vong said that DSEJ social workers at his school would counsel the whole school on the tragedy by first counselling the schoolgirl’s classmates before extending it to other classes.
According to the Macau Post Daily, Vong said that the counselling would include lowering pupils’ “negative feelings” and strengthening their life education.
In a statement last night, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau expressed deep sorrow about the case and conveyed its deep condolences to the bereaved families. The statement also said that the bureau had dispatched officials to the school where they would carry out counselling and provide pupils and teachers with all the necessary emotional support.
The statement noted that the bureau has been carrying out life education in all the city’s schools.
