Chan Yin-lam

The death of Chan Yin-lam occurred during the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and gave rise to speculations by protesters about its cause.

Lam was a 15-year-old student who died on or shortly after 19 September 2019.

Her naked corpse was found floating in the sea near Yau Tong, Hong Kong, on 22 September 2019.

Following a preliminary autopsy, police asserted that no foul play was suspected and that Chan had killed herself, while there were allegations that she was murdered by Hong Kong authorities in connection with her participation in the 2019 Hong Kong protests.

The coroner's inquest concluded with the jury unanimously returning an open verdict, after Magistrate Ko Wai-hung ruled out both homicide and suicide as possible causes due to insufficient evidence to support this.

Chan Yin-lam, also known as Christy Chan, was 15 years old.

Her parents were separated.

She had a "complicated" family background and a history of running away from home.

Prior to her disappearance, she had been staying at a girls' home.

She attended the Pok Oi Hospital Tang Pui King Memorial College, Hong Kong, and had, just a few days prior to her disappearance, started a course at the Youth College attached to the Vocational Training Council (VTC).

She also worked a part-time job in the restaurant trade.

Media reports indicate that Chan had won awards in inter-school swimming competitions.

Chan had received regular diving training and was once a member of the diving team.

Chan's death took place in the backdrop of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, and the increasing distrust of the government and hostility towards the police.

According to her friends, while Chan had attended protests, police confirmed that she had not been arrested during the protests.

On 19 September at 14:15, Chan left a group of friends at Mei Foo and sent a message to some friends stating she was going back home.

It was her last message before her disappearance.

Friends put out a missing person's brief after she failed to reappear; her family called the police on 21 September.

According to surveillance footage from Youth College she attended, she left the campus barefoot and walked towards the waterfront near Tseung Kwan O on 19 September.

She was reported missing two days later.

MTR confirmed that station cleaners had found a mobile phone and some stationery belonging to Chan on the ground near an exit of Tiu Keng Leng station, while the station staff contacted Chan's family members as confirmed by the call log of the mobile phone.

Her family member picked up the lost property two days later.

At 11 am on 22 September, a man who was fishing saw a floating object with a human form 100m off the coast from Devil's Peak.

Police boats were dispatched, and it was found to be the naked corpse of a human female.

Police initially reported that the victim was a female suspected of being between 25 and 30 years of age, 1.5m in height, medium build, with long blond hair.

On 9 October, responding to media inquiries, police confirmed that the naked corpse belonged to the 15-year-old Chan.

The police originally requested a court warrant on 27 September on the grounds that the case was a murder, but changed the categorisation to "dead body found" (not suspicious) several days later.

Her mother's later interview and the police's assertion that Chan had killed herself were met with some scepticism: there were doubts that Chan had killed herself by drowning because she was an award-winning swimmer.

Furthermore, waning trust in the government and the police, and the change in designation led to rumours circulating on social media.

The police and government officials were rumoured to have murdered her for participating in the 2019 Hong Kong protests and then covered-up her death.

The Hong Kong police and government have denied these allegations.

Pro-government posts, photos, memes and videos also propagated unsubstantiated claims that foreign forces were behind the demonstrations.

Students from the Hong Kong Design Institute where she was a student demanded the release of CCTV footage from 19 September as Chan was last seen on campus.

On 15 October, after a sit-in, campus management acceded to the demands and released some partial footage, but disgruntled students demanded the integral unedited footage with a 30-minute deadline.

When they failed to comply with the deadline, school premises were vandalised, surveillance cameras were damaged and a fire alarm was set off.

The VTC later suspended all classes between 15 and 17 October.

The VTC has since released additional CCTV clips after 200 students, amid class suspension, rallied inside the campus to support an online appeal for an indefinite class boycott.

After the Design Institute had disclosed surveillance videos and the girl's mother had appealed for an end to the speculation of Chan's death, students continued to demand the release of integral footage from surveillance cameras for 29 and 30 October.

Masked protesters accused the school of downplaying the situation; they continued to damage facilities and equipment on campus for two days, with the police ended up having to be called.

It has been suggested that the girl in the footage was an imposter, and that an actress had appeared in some cover-up by authorities.