On her social media, 25-year-old Andrea was the picture of a glamorous life in Hong Kong—a beautiful, half-Filipina model with a bright future. But behind the curated images was a hidden world of struggle, addiction, and personal turmoil. In March 2016, this hidden reality collided with her public persona in the most brutal way imaginable when she was killed by her boyfriend at a desolate construction site. The case would stun the public, not only for its viciousness but for the killer’s bizarre defense: he claimed he only attacked her because, in a drug-induced hallucination, he believed she had transformed into a witch.

Andrea’s life was a complex tapestry of privilege and hardship. The daughter of a Filipina mother, Wilma, and a wealthy Austrian man, she grew up with opportunities many only dream of. However, after graduating high school, she entered a rebellious phase. By the age of 25, she was a divorcée and a single mother to four young children from two different men. She struggled to make ends meet, working as a waitress and receptionist, and, as was later revealed in court, had developed a serious addiction to shabu (methamphetamine).

Her final relationship was with Safdar Husnain, a 27-year-old Pakistani security guard who was born and raised in Hong Kong. On the night of March 28, 2016, the couple was together at the construction site where Safdar worked, using drugs in the guard house. In the early hours of the next morning, a violent confrontation erupted.

The scene was witnessed by Safdar’s co-worker, Haresh. Hearing screams, he ran to the guard house and found Safdar in the middle of a horrific attack on a bloody Andrea, using a hammer and a power drill. Haresh tried desperately to intervene but was unable to stop the frenzy and ran to call for help. When police arrived, they found Safdar still assaulting the victim. Andrea was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival. The autopsy revealed that her face had been mutilated by the drill.

The case seemed to be a clear-cut, premeditated murder. The prosecution argued that Safdar, in a jealous rage after discovering Andrea planned to leave him for a wealthier Caucasian ex-boyfriend, had meticulously planned the killing so that no one else could have her. A jury agreed, finding him guilty of first-degree murder and sentencing him to life in prison. For Andrea’s grieving mother, Wilma, it seemed that justice had been served.

But the story took a shocking turn. Safdar’s defense team appealed the verdict, centering their case on a “diminished responsibility” argument. They claimed that Safdar was not in his right mind during the attack due to a drug-induced psychosis. They presented psychiatric testimony arguing that under the influence of shabu, Safdar experienced a terrifying hallucination: he saw Andrea transform into a mangkukulam (a Filipino witch) and heard voices commanding him to kill her before she could harm him.

In May 2020, in a stunning reversal, the Hong Kong Court of Appeals sided with the defense. The three-judge panel believed the psychiatric evidence, concluding that Safdar was not legally of sound mind when he committed the act. They overturned the murder conviction, downgraded the charge to the lesser offense of manslaughter, and slashed his sentence to just 10 years.

The decision was a devastating blow to Andrea’s family. Her mother, Wilma, felt as if her daughter had been killed all over again by the justice system. With credit for time served since his 2016 arrest, a man who committed one of the city’s most brutal acts of violence could soon walk free. The case of Andrea is a tragic and cautionary tale of a life lost to addiction and violence, and a complex legal battle that leaves a painful question about where responsibility ends and madness begins.