New information has emerged in the case of a missing 60-year-old British lecturer, who disappeared March 22 after crossing into Shenzhen from Hong Kong.
According to The Telegraph, Hilary St John Bower’s disappearance came after reaching an agreement to sell his Shenzhen property for a whopping HKD9 million (approximately RMB7,500,000) – although he had not yet received the funds.
This development adds a potentially sinister twist to the case of the missing man and a friend of Bower’s, Richard Charles, has openly suggested the property deal and the disappearance may be linked.
“I do know that after buying at the bottom of the property market a good few years ago, he was expecting to be paid somewhere in the region of HKD9 million for a property he just sold in Shekou,” he told the South China Morning Post.
Another strange element of this case is the fact Bower’s girlfriend, whom he has a 6-year-old son with, failed to report the vanishing act for eight days – a disturbingly long time if you ask us.
Bower, a long time expatriate, started lecturing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1996 and had chosen to live in Shenzhen due to its cheaper housing prices and easy commute to the Chinese territory, according to The Telegraph.
But although Shenzhen has traditionally been a cheaper option than Hong Kong, housing prices in the city have skyrocketed in recent years – meaning Bower would likely have received a hefty profit from his Shekou property.
Since Bower’s girlfriend reported the disappearance to police on March 30, there has been no progress in unravelling his fate.
A spokeswoman at the British Embassy in Beijing told The Telegraph, “We are providing assistance to the family of a British national reported missing in southern China. We are in contact with local authorities in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.”
Brower is 195 centimeters tall, weights 235 pounds (110 kilograms) and resides in Shekou. If you know Mr. Brower, or are aware of his whereabouts, please contact Cynthia Cai in Shenzhen (+86 150 1852 3960), Richard Charles in Hong Kong (+852 9530 5831) or the Hong Kong police department (+852 9530 5831).
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