British businessman remains in custody accused of murdering Indonesian woman in Hong Kong

HONG KONG — A British businessman was ordered to remain in custody on Friday after being charged with murder in Hong Kong following the death of an Indonesian woman at a park waterfall.

Jamie Tzewee Chapman, 34, did not enter a plea during the hearing and his lawyer did not apply for bail. The judge postponed the case until January to allow time for further investigation.

Chapman and his wife, a Hong Konger, were arrested on Tuesday as they returned to the city from mainland China. His wife was held on suspicion of assisting an offender before being released on bail pending further investigations, police said on Thursday.

According to police, Chapman and the Indonesian woman went together to a waterfall in a park on Hong Kong Island on Sunday evening. He left about a half hour later and residents spotted the woman’s body in the pond below the waterfall Monday morning, police said. She was hit in the head and drowned.

Mevi Novitasari, about 25 years old, was a domestic worker in Hong Kong but did not work for the suspect, police said.

She came from Cilacap in Central Java province, Indonesia’s Judha Nugraha, director of protection of Indonesian citizens and legal entities, said.

Her employment agency and the Indonesian consulate will facilitate the repatriation of the remains and the consulate general will continue to monitor the investigation, he said.

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Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report