Murder suspect fled to Hong Kong

Police questioned man after Markham realtor reported missing

- JASON MILLER

It was around midday, on the day Yuk-Ying (Anita) Mui went missing, that police knocked on the door of a business in Markham.

They were looking for Zhixiong Marko Hu, and asked him if he knew Mui, a prominent realtor and community member who disappeared on Aug. 9.

The conversation was brief, a man who was there told the Star. Police would return days later, the man said, again looking for Hu.

It appears they were too late. “He already disappeared; nobody can contact him,” the man said. What police and border officials confirmed publicly Thursday is that, three days after Mui’s disappearance, Hu — now wanted for first-degree murder in her death —left Canada, bound for Hong Kong. Mui’s burned remains were also found three days after she went missing, in the Parry Sound area.

The witness to Hu’s conversation with police, who spoke to the Star this week on condition of anonymity, had been subletting a portion of Hu’s business space in a plaza near Woodbine Avenue and John Street. Police declined to comment on the witness’s account.

“Everybody is shocked, for sure, because we know him and he’s not like this person,” that police have now accused of committing murder, the source said.

The business houses a modest office, plus a cabinet-making and woodworking shop in the rear. The smell of freshly cut wood permeated the air, the buzzing of electric saws audible from the entrance on the day the Star visited the location. An adjoining unit, linked to Hu, was closed. The windows of both were covered with images of luxury homes.