HK police drop case vs employers of Pinay who fell to her death in Shenzhen

By Vir B. Lumicao

Lorain Asuncion’s death: “... there was 

insufficient evidence to charge any person. “

Hong Kong police have released the former employers of Lorain Asuncion, the Filipina domestic worker who fell to her death on July 24 last year while in Shenzhen for a supposed holiday with the couple and their children.

A spokesman of the Police Public Relations Branch said in a message to The SUN that there was a lack of evidence to charge the couple, Gu Huaiyu and Ms Liu.

“After enquiry and investigation, police had sought legal advice and it was concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge any person. The arrested 47-year-old man and the 32-year-old woman were released,” the PPRB spokesman said.
But the spokesman said that “police are still investigating the case.”

When contacted online on May 11, Asuncion’s sister Jenevieve Javier expressed surprise at how soon the police managed to close their investigation of the employers.

“Bakit ganun naman yata kabilis nilang tinapos. Lilinawin ko ulit sa kanila,” she said.

The police statement confirmed information from Javier, who came to Hong Kong for a four-day visit on May 7. She said an investigator called her up on the same day telling her the case against Gu and Liu was being dropped.

Javier said the officer told her Hong Kong police would now turn their attention to the circumstances of her sister’s death in Shenzhen.

She also said the police asked Asuncion’s family to submit documents pertaining to her beneficiaries. Javier said the documents required were copies of the very same documents that she had attached to the application for employee compensation that she had submitted to the Labour Department.

Danilo Baldon of the Philippine Consulate’s assistance to nationals section, who had been liaising with the police about the Asuncion case, also confirmed the dropping of the case against the employers.

Asuncion was 28 years old when she reportedly plunged to her death from the 22nd floor flat of Liu’s father in Longgang District, Shenzhen on July 23 or 24 last year.

Three autopsies were conducted on her remains but the findings were all the same – that there was nothing suspicious in her death.

Forensic experts from the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau and from a local university who examined Asuncion’s remains separately shortly after the tragedy had both ruled out foul play. A third autopsy by Hong Kong police on Nov 14 made the same findings.

The remains were brought to Hong Kong on Nov 14 for the standard autopsy before the deceased OFW made her final voyage home in a coffin the next day.