In July 1898, a Chinese man named Chee Hung vanished from Yam Creek in the Northern Territory. Days later, human bones were discovered in a neighbouring garden. Investigators found that Chee Hung had been accused of stealing gold, shot while fishing at a billabong, and then his body was cooked and dismembered with an axe to prevent identification. Lem Kai and his accomplice Chung Yeung were arrested and tried at the Circuit Court in March 1899, where circumstantial evidence was overwhelming and both men were convicted of wilful murder.
On 10 August 1899, both men were hanged in the yard of Fannie Bay Gaol in the presence of the deputy sheriff, gaol officials, and four justices of the peace. The executioner and his assistant were prisoners serving time in the gaol itself.
Both condemned men admitted their guilt to a Chinese missionary who attended them before the execution, and they met their deaths with composure.
