Hong Kong Professor Arrested After Wife’s Body Is Found in a Box

HONG KONG — A professor at the prestigious Hong Kong University was arrested Tuesday night after the body of his wife was found inside a box at his office, the police said.

The arrest of the professor, whose name was not released by the police, comes as Hong Kong is transfixed by the trial of another professor accused of killing his wife and daughter with a carbon monoxide-filled yoga ball.

In the latest case, security footage showed the suspect hauling the box believed to contain his wife’s remains out of a student dormitory, where he lived as a faculty warden with his wife and children, the police said.

The professor had filed a missing persons report more than a week ago, saying that his wife had gone missing the morning of Aug. 17 after a family dispute overnight. But the police grew suspicious when they did not find footage of his wife leaving their building.

On Tuesday morning, the professor sent an email to students at the residence hall, apologizing for the presence of police officers.

“They are here to investigate a missing person case involving my family,” he wrote. “There is nothing to worry about among the students.”

That evening, the police raided the professor’s office at Hong Kong University. When they opened the wooden box, they found a suitcase that contained what they believed was his wife’s body.

“There was blood seeping out of the suitcase,” Law Kwok-hoi, a police superintendent, said at a briefing on Tuesday. The body had begun to smell and an electrical wire was tied around her neck, he said.

The police believe the victim was strangled, and an autopsy was planned to officially determine the cause of her death.

While the police withheld the suspect’s name, local media reported that he is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Hong Kong University and is also prominent in the university’s governance. The university regularly ranks among the top 10 in Asia.

Professor Xiang Zhang, the university’s president and vice-chancellor, called the killing a “tragic event” in a campus-wide e-mail.

”I am sure that you are as saddened and shocked as I am,” he wrote to students, faculty and staff.

This arrest came a week after the start of the murder trial of Dr. Khaw Kim-sun, who was accused of killing his wife and daughter with a yoga ball filled with carbon monoxide. Testimony is still being heard in that case.