Haoling Luo seen leaving with sons day before wife found
The husband of a woman found dead in a Pymble unit was captured on CCTV at Sydney Airport leaving for China with his sons the day before police found her body curled up in a newly bought freezer.
NSW
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CCTV from Sydney Airport captured Sydney real estate agent Haoling Luo bundling his two young children onto an 11.30am flight to China’s Sichuan province on Tuesday.
At 10am Wednesday police broke into his home – apartment 22 in Pymble’s Arboria building – to find the body of his wife curled up inside a recently purchased freezer.
NSW Police began urgent attempts to locate Luo in China but the welfare of their two sons, a six-year-old Pymble Public School student and his four-year-old brother, was the priority.
Chinese authorities today confirmed the children were safe in the care of the victim’s parents in China and local police there were speaking to 36-year-old Luo.
“Those particular children who are now in China are safe and well and the individual, the man, is currently assisting local police in China with inquiries,” NSW Homicide Squad detective superintendent Scott Cook said.
He said police rushed to the Pymble apartment, purchased in Luo’s name for $906,000 in January, after someone in Australia raised a concern for the woman’s welfare.
It is understood Luo was interviewed at a police station in Sichuan province but detectives are now engaged in a delicate diplomatic exchange with Chinese authorities, who are communicating through an Australian Federal Police officer stationed there, to try and find out what he has told them.
“We’ve … engaged with the AFP liaison officer in Beijing and with the Chinese Ministry for Public Security and the Chinese consulate in Australia and we’re getting exceptional assistance from all those agencies,” Supt Cook said.
“Overnight we were mainly focused on determining the safety if the children. We’ll engage further with police in China about what they’ve discussed with the individual.”
The deeply frozen state of he body is expected to delay forensic examination.
“We don’t anticipate a post mortem will take place until next week at the earliest,” Supt Cook said.
At the scene today, forensics crews remained looking closely at the freezer and the apartment.
Police are still unsure exactly where the death occurred.
The door was covered in fingerprint dust, and just inside bags and hats remained hanging from hooks.
Luo is understood to have been working as a real estate agent but police are working quickly to build a profile on his life.
Neighbours said families with children also lived in apartments just a couple of doors from where the body was found.
“It feels absolutely terrible,” one woman said.
Maureen Patterson lives on Bobbin Head Rd, the same street as the victim laid flowers for her. She said she wanted to pay respect.
“I felt like I had to do something even though it’s not much. I hope other residents lay flowers as a sign of respect. I hope she’s at peace now,” Mrs Patterson said.
“I really feel very upset about it. I think we saw the two little boys go by and recognise the father, we think we’ve seen them many times,” Mrs Patterson said.
“We’ve seen her too. I don’t know them, but I feel like I do now.”
She said it’s not the first time crime has happened on the street.
“We recently had a break-in. And there was someone who got bashed near here down the road.”
One mother who was standing outside Pymble Public School about 2.30pm on Thursday said she heard about the tragedy.
“I didn’t know her but it’s sad. I heard one of her boys was in class 1H. I don’t know much about it,” the woman, who did not want to be named, said.
Meanwhile a father at the school said: “It’s shocking. It’s not something that happens in the Pymble-Turramurra area.”
Residents who live in the same building where the body was found on Bobbin Head Rd said they were surprised and hadn’t seen or heard anything suspicious.
“I’ve lived here for 10 years and haven’t had any issues so to have something like this is shocking,” resident Tom Goulding said.
“Detectives said it happened between 10am and 2pm on a Sunday and was well in bed by the time anything happened so I didn’t hear anything.
“We’re in the very back building and it happened in the front building.”
A woman who lives in the building with her 15-year-old son said her thoughts are with the woman’s two young children.
“I never met her but it’s very sad, I feel sorry for the children. I heard she had children, six and four. I have a fifteen year old child myself,” she said.
“I hope the children are with someone who loves them. And people who actually know them like family.
“I came home at about 2.30pm and I saw all the police tape and I thought the tree outside was going to fall down but police told me what happened.”