Hello Kitty murder case revisited as Build A Bear announces upcoming fictional character collection

Build-A-Bear has taken the world by surprise by announcing its new Hello Kitty collection. While the character and the company have been around for years, the retailer announcing the release with a poster of the red and white fictional character has surely filled the hearts of fans with bliss and glee. While the brand has not yet released any further information about Hello Kitty, the collaboration, or the release date, fans are revisiting the Hello Kitty murder case soon after the announcement of the collection.

While in no way is the company using the murder case for promotional purposes, netizens have seemed to gather interest in the tragic incident after the re-emergence of the fictional character.

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What was the Hello Kitty murder case? Details explored as fans remember and show interest in the 1999 gruesome murder

While a lot is not known about the new collection by Build-A-Bear, the website still gives fans a chance to learn more about the collaboration and other details by signing up on the website itself.

When would the brand release the new Hello Kitty collection? Details explored. (Image via Hello Kitty)

But at the moment, people are remembering the horrific murder that took place more than two decades ago.

Disclaimer: The details of the murder are very gruesome. Readers discretion is advised.

The Hello Kitty murder that took place in 1999 in Hong Kong was one of the most tragic and brutal murders in the country. The victim, a woman named Fan Man-yee, was 23 years old at the time of her death. She was abducted and tortured in an apartment after stealing a wallet from one of her frequent customers.

Man-yee was abandoned by her family when she was a little kid. She grew up in an orphanage but had to leave at the age of 15 due to an age restriction. She ended up homeless and indulged in s*x work before ending up in an abusive marriage with one of her clients.

Fan Man-yee, the woman who was executed in a brutal and disturbing manner by 3 men in Hong-Kong. (Image via RANKERS)

The couple even had a child a few years after they got married. However, she soon decided to make her life better, as she left the man, prostitution and her old life behind and went on to work as a hostess in a nightclub.

The nightclub she was a hostess at had all sorts of clientele, from drug addicts to members of powerful criminal gangs and drug dealers. Her interaction with Chan Man-lok, a middle-aged drug dealer and a frequent patron of the club, led to her gruesome death. Fan Man-yee once stole his wallet, which has about $500. This was soon realized by Man-lok. Although she returned the wallet and the cash on the spot, Man-lok still demanded more money.

When Fan Man-yee expressed her inability to pay the amount, she was kept hostage in an apartment by Chan, two other male associates and a 14-year-old girl named Ah Fong. Over the next few weeks, they tortured in pretty disturbing ways, sometimes by burning her feet, other times by pouring boiling hot substances on her.

Later, in the police investigation, it was revealed that the woman was regularly soiled with urine and excrement, as well as force-fed drugs. She was also s*xually assaulted many times. As a result of all the torture, Fan died a few weeks later.

After Man-yee passed away, Chan and the other murderers cut her body into pieces and fed it to the animals around the apartment. But the most gruesome and disturbing part of the incident was when the murderers boiled her skull and then stitched it inside a Hello Kitty mermaid doll. Hence, this brutal murder was later known as the Hello Kitty Murder Case.

The murderers were later arrested and prosecuted in 2000 after a six-week trial. The three men were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Ah Fong testified at the trial in exchange for immunity. Till date, the murder case remains one of the most disturbing cases in the world of crime.

Although the murder case is nowhere to be associated with the new launch of the Hello Kitty collection, fans are still remembering the spine-chilling details of the horrendous murder by the three men.