British businessman Jamie Tzewee Chapman charged with murder in Hong Kong

Jamie Tzewee Chapman, 34, did not enter a plea during his court appearance on Friday and his lawyer did not request bail.

The judge adjourned the case to January to allow time for further investigation.

Chapman and his wife, a Hongkonger, were arrested on Tuesday when they returned to the city from mainland China. His wife had been held on suspicion of assisting an offender before being released on bail pending further investigation, police said on Thursday.

Police said Chapman and the Indonesian woman went to a waterfall in a park on Hong Kong Island together on Sunday night. He left about half an hour later. Residents spotted the woman’s body in the pond below the waterfall on Monday morning, police said.

She had been struck in the head and drowned. Mevi Novitasari, who was about 25, was a domestic worker in Hong Kong but did not work for the suspect, police said. She was from Cilacap in Central Java province, Judha Nugraha, the director of protection of Indonesian citizens and legal entities, said from Indonesia.

Her employment agency and the Indonesian consulate will organise the repatriation of her body and the consulate general will continue to monitor the investigation, he said.