Laurence Dollimore
THE alleged killer of Singaporean tourist Audrey Fang has been named as Mitchell Ong.
The 43-year-old, also from the East Asian country, is accused of stabbing Audrey more than 30 times on April 9 before dumping her body in a lorry park in Abanilla, Murcia.
He is being held behind bars following a court hearing on Friday, while the investigation into the brutal murder continues. He was arrested in Alicante on April 16.
Guardia Civil sources told local media that they are now probing a financial motive for the killing, adding that Audrey’s body showed no signs of sexual assault.
READ MORE: What happened to Audrey Fang? Timeline of her brutal murder
Audrey had reportedly transferred a sum of money to an unidentified third person.
Three Spanish outlets – La Verdad de Murcia, La Opinion and Levante El Mercantil – have all identified the suspect by his initials OM.
According to the latter, police sources said Audrey and Ong’s phones were in the same area of Abanilla on the day of her death.
Ong’s Instagram page shows he is a gym fanatic, with dozens of videos of himself working out and lifting weights.
The 6ft1 man, according to his social media, appears to enjoy designer clothes, high-end cars and stays at luxury hotels.
Meanwhile, his last post on Instagram from April 3 was uploaded from Alicante.
According to Singapore outlet 8World, Ong got married in June 2012, and his LinkedIn page describes himself as the ‘founder of three technology start-ups’.
Timeline of Audrey’s murder
On April 4, Audrey, an architect, checked into a luxury hotel in Javea on the Costa Blanca.
She had travelled to Spain alone and was due to check out on April 10. It was not her first time travelling solo.
However on April 9, she left her hotel, leaving all her belongings and suitcases behind, and was never seen alive again.
Her family last spoke to her on that same day and she was spotted on CCTV walking out of the hotel at around 8.45pm.
She had been due to fly back to Singapore from Barcelona but did not make the journey to Catalunya.
On April 10, a man spotted a body while going to have breakfast at a restaurant next to the RM-422 Fortuna-Pinoso road, in Murcia – some 150km away from Audrey’s hotel.
However there was no identification on the victim and authorities struggled to identify the body.
On April 12, Audrey’s anxious brother waited for her at the airport in Singapore but she did not come off the flight.
It was then that her relatives filed a police report and also made contact with the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper, a family friend said that Audrey had told some acquaintances that she was going to meet somebody she knew during her visit to Spain, but they were not aware of who it was.
A desperate search by police ensued for several days in and around Alicante.
On April 16, Mitchell Ong was arrested at his hotel in Alicante following an investigation by Policia Nacional.
On April 17, it was revealed that police believed the body found in Murcia belonged to Audrey.
