18th October 2019 – (Hong Kong) Despite clarification from the deceased 15-year-old Chan Yin Lam’s mother on TVB interview yesterday to quash rumours that she was murdered, netizens continued to cast doubts on the remarks of the mother and the authenticity of the CCTV footage.

Netizens questioned the height of the girl in the CCTV video (To watch all the CCTV footage, click HERE) as they insisted that she was a double who is much taller than Chan. Chan’s height was reported to be 153cm. In one screenshot of the video, netizens estimated the height of the man walking past her to be around 163-165cm and it is impossible for the girl in the footage to be of 153cm as they were standing close to each other. Furthermore, she was walking barefoot in this video and Chan would appear shorter if she was indeed 153cm.

Many felt that the person in the video was a double as she was very conscious of the fact that she was being filmed and she did not appear natural.

Netizen argued that the girl in the video is taller than 153cm.

Netizens who have been to the 9th floor of Hong Kong Design Institute argued that the woman in the video is taller than 153 after taking into account the notices on the wall between the lifts and the thickness her shoes.

To add to the mystery of the case, a new video of a girl that resembles Chan’s ‘double’ in the CCTV video footage surfaced yesterday. She was wearing exactly the same outfit in the video but her facial features were not similar to Chan, in particular, her eyebrows. The girl was strangely talking to another girl in the video who was wearing the same green outfit worn by Chan before. It was unsure who took the video and why it only surfaced yesterday.

Netizen argued that the girl is Chan’s double.

Video of Chan’s double talking to a girl wearing the same green outfit worn by Chan before surfaced yesterday.

Also, in the TVB interview yesterday, Chan’s mother reiterated that her daughter was involved in distributing flyers during street protest in June but she stopped going in July after she felt that ‘the substance of the movement has significantly changed’. Her mother further said that her daughter stopped dabbling in politics after July. However, a video posted on social media by Chan in August casts doubt on her mother’s remarks as she referred to her ‘partners’ in the current protest and at the end of the video she wrote, ‘There is no rioter, there is only tyranny’ in Cantonese with hashtag #saveforhk.

Video posted on social media by Chan in August 2019.

It seems like netizens will continue to come up with conspiracy theories despite the pleading by Chan’s mother to put the case to rest. She has hoped that they would leave her in peace but netizens argued that the glaring evidence on social media discredits the authenticity of the CCTV footage released by Hong Kong Design Institute as they contended that it was post-production using Chan’s double to cover-up for a murder case committed by police officers. Pro-democracy supporters will persist in capitalising on the ambiguity of the case to politicise the incident with an ulterior motive to point fingers at the police force.