Desert murder stuns family
Son conceals the awful truth from ambush victim’s elderly parents. Amanda Saxton reports.
A New Zealand real estate agent has rushed to the Middle East after his father was brutally murdered and buried in the desert.
William Luo was told by Dubai police that his dad’s body had been stashed in a car boot for two days then buried in a remote part of the country by business associates.
Luo said he was contacted by the alleged killers who impersonated his father, demanding money and trying to lure him to Dubai.
‘‘All I could think was ‘you’re kidding’,’’ he said. ‘‘This is the stuff of movies, not real life.’’
The last time he saw his father Hong Xi Luo was in May when he flew to New Zealand to help his son move house and spend time with his grandchildren.
Hong Xi had made a dozen or so trips to New Zealand since 2006, when William – now a resident – moved here to study. He flew over for his son’s wedding, the births of his two grandkids, and a number of family road trips.
‘‘My father’s favourite place was Queenstown, in the autumn,’’ said William. ‘‘He was a good artist, and it inspired him to draw.’’
Before his dad last left New Zealand, William said they had ‘‘sort of jokingly’’ discussed where the best place to die was.
Hong Xi had reckoned it was one’s hometown; his was Nanjing, a river city in stark contrast with the sand dunes where police say he lost his life.
Hong Xi arrived in Dubai on August 4 – the date police believe he was murdered.
William received messages via Chinese language social media site WeChat, apparently from his father, asking him to come to Dubai. The messages said he had lost his passport and the Chinese Embassy refused to help.
‘‘I was busy and replied that I couldn’t just fly to Dubai,’’ said William. ‘‘I had no idea anything serious had happened to him, and thought this was a simple problem he should have been able to solve with the embassy.’’
William now believes his father’s killers had stolen his phone and were trying to lure him to Dubai.
‘‘I’m afraid they tortured my father, because they knew all his passwords, all the bank details, everything,’’ said William.
It wasn’t until a message arrived claiming his dad was planning to travel to Thailand on a fake passport to make his way back to China that William began to feel uneasy.
‘‘The next day I got a WeChat saying he’d arrived in Thailand, and asking my mother for money,’’ he said. Fake passports and pleas for funds were out of character for Hong Xi, so William sent a message back asking his father to confirm his identity via a selfie.
That’s when the messages stopped.
‘‘We decided then to fly to Thailand,’’ said William. ‘‘I flew in from New Zealand and my mother flew in from China; we met at the airport and went straight to the police.’’
The Thai police helped William and his mum scrutinise CCTV footage of every flight arriving from Dubai, but they couldn’t see Hong Xi.
Their next stop was China, where William left his worried mother. He headed to Dubai alone to alert the Chinese Embassy and local police to his father’s disappearance.
‘‘The police told me they had already started an investigation, that I should go back to New Zealand and wait for news,’’ said William.
On September 16 he got an enigmatic call from the Dubai police.
‘‘I asked them, ‘what has happened? Have you found my father?’, but they said they could not tell me anything over the phone.’’
But they did request a recent photo of Hong Xi, he said.
William sent the photo, and booked tickets for the next flight to Dubai, to meet the officer in charge of the case.
‘‘He told me the police had arrested four people at Dubai Airport, and that those people had killed my father.
‘‘They had killed him violently and kept his body in the back of a car for two days before burying him in the desert, 400km out of Dubai.’’
William said the suspects had been caught at the airport on their return to Dubai, confessed to the crime, and that the body of an Asian man fitting his father’s description had been found where they said it would be.
Local media in Dubai reported the murder on September 20; Dubai police said a 47-year-old woman, her 29-year-old son, and two accomplices – all from China – had been taken into custody for killing a Chinese tourist soon after he arrived in the United Arab Emirates.
The article said the victim had been murdered ‘‘over some financial disputes’’.
William said he had met the woman accused of murder. She was Hong Xi’s business partner, an acquaintance of the family who divided her time between China and Australia.
Their business importing milk powder from Europe hadn’t been doing well of late, said William.
‘‘My mother told me this woman had invited my father on the trip to Europe, with her and her son, to look into some business opportunities there,’’ he said. ‘‘My mother told me [Hong Xi and his business partner] had a good relationship.’’ En route to Europe, the trio stopped in Dubai.
William said he couldn’t understand why the woman – or anyone – would murder his ‘‘gentlemanly’’ father.
‘‘He was a very kind man, always dressed neatly and looking good,’’ said William. ‘‘So I cannot imagine those last moments of his life. I cannot imagine anyone burying him in the desert.’’
Before Hong Xi’s disappearance, the Luos had planned to next see each other for Chinese New Year in New Zealand. They had hoped Hong Xi and his wife would move here permanently in the near future.
William was Hong Xi’s only child, and said his own children, aged three and 18 months, had a strong bond with their grandfather despite living in a different country.
‘‘My daughter keeps asking where he is,’’ said William, whose wife and children were supporting his mother in China while he awaited updates from police in Dubai.
Hong Xi’s own elderly parents were not aware of their son’s death.
‘‘We will probably tell them that my father got sick, and died from that rather than murder,’’ said William. ‘‘They are too old to hear the real story.’’
I cannot imagine those last moments of his life. I cannot imagine anyone burying him in the desert. William Luo