Murder of Chi Tue Tiong

On the Saturday afternoon of 28 June 2003, 68-year-old Tan Poh Geat arrived at apartment 39B in one of the areas of Geylang (Singapore's red-light district), looking for the apartment's caretaker, 68-year-old Chi Tue Tiong, whom she employed as a caretaker of both apartments 39B and 37C.[1] Tan, who had not seen Chi for the whole morning and afternoon, suspected that something was amiss because Chi normally would not miss both his lunch and afternoon snack. By the time Tan arrived, she was unable to enter the apartment and found that the key was missing.[2]

Tan managed to seek help from other people to open the gate, and upon entry, they discovered the corpse of Chi Tue Tiong lying in a pool of blood inside his room.[3][4] Chi was found to have multiple injuries on his head and arms, and his drawers were tampered with, and most of the room's interior space was covered with blood.[5] After the police were contacted, they inspected the area and found bloodstained shoeprints on the floor. A bloodstained wooden pestle was also found in one of the drawers inside Chi's bedroom, and it was speculated that the pestle was used by Chi's killer(s) to commit his murder.[6][7] Chi, a Singaporean of Hakka Chinese descent,[8] was survived by at least three children, including a daughter who rushed back to Singapore from Johor upon hearing the news of her father's death.[9] It was reported that no one heard of something unusual on that day when Chi was killed.[10]

Dr Teo Eng Swee, a forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on the victim, discovered extensive skull fractures and brain injuries, which were caused by multiple blunt force trauma. Dr Teo determined that at least nine blows were inflicted to Chi's head with a blunt instrument, with the murder weapon was possibly either the bloodstained wooden pestle or the handle of an axe found at the scene. He also stated that based on the blood splatters on Chi's bed, he was likely first assaulted on the bed before he was continually assaulted while lying on the floor. He stated that the death of Chi likely took place about eight to sixteen hours prior, and the injuries were so severe that they result in death within minutes.[11]

The police classified the case of Chi Tue Tiong's death as murder, and they promptly began their investigations in the case, with Inspector David Ang leading the investigations. They found that the pestle belonged to Itsariya Jinakarn, a Thai masseuse who rented a room in apartment 37C, and she told the police that her pestle was a part of the set of a pounder and pestle that she kept in the kitchen area of apartment 37C, and she stated that it was often borrowed to an Indonesian couple, who rented one of the rooms in the same apartment as her before they moved out on the same day the caretaker was murdered.[2]

The police therefore focused their investigation on the couple, they identified the female ex-tenant, who was an Indonesian citizen who left for Batam by ferry on 29 June 2003, a day after Chi was killed. The Indonesian woman, whose name was Rachel (alias Fatimah or Leni), was approached by the officers of the Singapore Police Force, who were dispatched to Indonesia to interview her. Rachel provided the police some crucial information, which led police to a flat in Telok Blangah.[2] The resident of the flat, Supiah bte Awang, told police that on the day of the murder, Rachel and her boyfriend, identified as Zailani bin Ahmad, came to visit her husband Kassim bin Rabu, who was Zailani's friend but Kassim was not at home. Supiah said that after the couple rested at her flat for a while, Zailani borrowed a pair of shoes from her while leaving his own bag and shoes inside the flat. Zailani's shoes and bag were recovered from the police, and the shoes were found to have bloodstains on them, and the DNA profile matched that of the murdered caretaker. Furthermore, the bloodstained shoeprints found at the crime scene matched the print of Zailani's shoes.[12][13][14]

On 30 June 2003, after 40 hours of police investigation,[15] Zailani (who spent the past two days hiding in three different places)[16] was arrested as a suspect for murdering Chi Tue Tiong.[17][18] Investigations by the police concluded that Zailani and Rachel were both responsible for killing Chi Tue Tiong during a robbery bid.[19] Background information revealed that prior to the murder, Zailani, who was a Singaporean citizen and was 35 years old at the time of his arrest, was working as an air-conditioner technician, and he also engaged in selling illegal VCDs to supplement his income. Zailani was also a divorcee with one son, and he graduated from secondary school with an GCE N-level certificate. He also had previously spent time at drug rehabilitation centres on several occasions for drug abuse.[2]

On 1 July 2003, just three days after the caretaker's murder, 35-year-old Zailani bin Ahmad was charged with murder. Rachel was also charged in absentia for the murder of the caretaker, but even though she was mentioned alongside Zailani in the charge sheet, Rachel was never brought back to Singapore for indictment and trial because there was no extradition treaty between Indonesia and Singapore, and Rachel herself made clear her intention to not return to Singapore to assist in investigations. Therefore, only Zailani was charged in court for the murder, and he was also the sole person left pending trial for the case.[20][21]

On 23 November 2004, Zailani's appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal's three judges - Chief Justice Yong Pung How, Justice M P H Rubin and Judge of Appeal Chao Hick Tin - who all agreed that Zailani was in full control of his faculties at the time he murdered Chi Tue Tiong.[39] It was reported that after the loss of his appeal, Zailani shouted expletives at the judges before he was forcibly dragged out of court by officers who covered his mouth.[40]

In the aftermath, True Files, a Singaporean crime show, re-enacted the Chi Tue Tiong murder case and aired it as the seventh episode of the show's fourth season on 14 May 2006. It was heavily implied that after the rejection of his appeal, Zailani had since been hanged for murdering Chi before the broadcast of the episode, although his date of execution was unknown. Ismail Hamid, who formerly represented Zailani, recounted that Zailani was stunned and shocked at the verdict of death during his trial, as Zailani believed throughout that his claims of having killed Chi under the influence of a sleeping pill overdose could be accepted by the trial court. It was also mentioned that Rachel, who remained at large in Indonesia, would also be executed alongside Zailani for Chi's murder should she be arrested and charged in court before her escape, but till today, she is never arrested or convicted for her role in the killing.[41]

• Capital punishment in Singapore