Murder of Liang Shan Shan

On 2 October 1989, 17-year-old Liang Shan Shan, a third-year arts student of Mayflower Secondary School, did not return home at 1.20pm as she usually did. After 3pm, Liang's mother, Quek Meng Ghet, still did not see her daughter return home to their Balestier Road flat. Quek contacted her daughter's friends, but none of them saw Liang after the school dismissal and her departure from school at 1pm. According to her background information in several news reports, Liang was the eldest of seven children in the family, and has four brothers (one of them studied at the same school as Liang) and two sisters. Her father Leong Kon Sang (Chinese: 梁天生; pinyin: Liáng Tiānshēng) was a contractor. Liang and her whole family were all Malaysians who immigrated from the Malaysian state of Sabah to Singapore six years prior, in 1983.[4][5]

Liang's father reported her missing, and put up a reward for information related to her whereabouts. Liang's parents stated that their eldest daughter was normally obedient and had no hobbies, and she only hung out with her female friends outdoors. There were also no family arguments at home prior to Liang's disappearance. Tang Swee Chay, then school principal of Mayflower Secondary School, stated that he and the school teachers inquired Liang's classmates, who all confirmed Liang was last seen leaving school and there were no suspicious persons seen around the school compound and its nearby areas. She was known to be a quiet student at school.[6][4]

On 14 October 1989, twelve days after Liang Shan Shan disappeared, a group of National Servicemen were training at Yishun Industrial Park. While they were training at the area itself, Reservist Lieutenant Chong Pin Siong and three of his fellow recruits stumbled upon a highly decomposed corpse of a teenage girl at the park's forested vacant area. The police were contacted, and the investigation team, together with forensic pathologist Chao Tzee Cheng, arrived at the scene. First-hand reports revealed that several body parts of the victim were scattered around the area, where it was frequently used by the military conscripts for training, and it was speculated that the victim had been dead for about twelve days. The nametag on a school uniform blouse found nearby showed the victim's name "Liang Shan Shan". The alleged skull of Liang was located about a metre away from the body.[7][8][9][10]

It was later confirmed that the corpse indeed belonged to Liang.[9] Professor Chao conducted an autopsy on Liang's corpse. He discovered injuries to the right side of Liang's ribcage, and the right cheekbone of Liang's skull, which were possibly caused either by a fall or an impact from a blunt and hard object. However, he could not ascertain the cause of death. Professor Chao could not tell whether it was a suicide, murder or accident due to the highly-advanced state of decomposition and the fact that some body parts were missing. Besides, the injuries he found on the skull and ribs were not sufficient to cause death.[11][12][13] Also, there were no strong signs of sexual assault due to the high state of decomposition, though her skirt did indicate signs of being forcibly pulled by someone.[14]

Police investigations were conducted and detectives began to have interviews with Liang Shan Shan's classmates and family members. One of Liang's male classmates, Huang Chendong, revealed that he witnessed Liang getting up her school bus at around 1pm, and the school bus left the school with Liang alone sitting on the bus itself. The school bus driver, who was driving the bus itself, was identified as Oh Laye Koh, a 34-year-old Singaporean who was married with one son and resided at Ang Mo Kio. He had driven Liang to school for the past five years before her death.[15][16]

Oh was brought in for questioning, and he was later placed under official arrest. On 18 October 1989, Oh was charged with murder in relation to Liang's death at a local district court.[17] If found guilty of murder under Singapore law, Oh Laye Koh would face the death penalty.

Norhayah Mohamed Ali, the suspected first victim of Oh Laye Koh.

On 8 November 1989, a month after he was charged for Liang's alleged killing, Oh was also charged with the murder of 18-year-old Rohayah binti Mohamed Ali, a lounge waitress who was found murdered on 6 October 1982 at a construction site in Ang Mo Kio,[18][19] and which was the same location where the current campus of St Nicholas Girls' School would be built in 1985. Norhayah, who was knifed to death by the throat, was also originally reported missing under similar circumstances as Liang and a coroner's court in 1984 issued a verdict of murder by person(s) unknown.[20] Her murder remained unsolved for seven years before Oh was found to be the last person seen with Norhayah while he was under investigation for Liang's murder, which thus led to the second murder charge.[21][22][23]

Oh was held under remand without bail for the two murder charges, and under a court order, he was assessed by a psychiatrist while in remand to determine his mental state at the time of the offences.[24][25] On 22 October 1989, the skeletal remains of Liang were returned to the family for cremation and funeral preparations after Professor Chao completed the post-mortem examination.[26]

On 5 July 1990, after some pre-trial conferences, the magistrate Chan Wang Ho from the district court was satisfied that there was sufficient evidence against Oh for the charges of murdering both Liang and Norhayah, and thus ordered both cases to be transferred to the High Court and a date was set to be scheduled for Oh to face trial for the two killings.[27][28]

On 17 August 1992, 37-year-old Oh Laye Koh first stood trial in the High Court for the murder of Liang Shan Shan. Deputy Public Prosecutor Jennifer Marie (who would prosecute British serial killer John Martin Scripps for killing three tourists in 1995) led the prosecution, while Oh was represented by lawyers Ramesha Pillai and Alan Wong. Judicial Commissioner Amarjeet Singh was the presiding judge of the case.[29]

At the start of the prosecution's case, Liang's family and classmates showed up as trial witnesses for the prosecution. According to Liang's classmates, they testified that Liang apparently detested her school bus driver, who sometimes verbally harassed her, complimenting on her slim body figure and saying she was beautiful and attractive. There was one time where Oh actually tried to take a photo of Liang. One of the other classmates, Pan Fenyi, testified that after Liang's disappearance and death, she was contacted by Oh, who asked her to lie to the authorities and in court that she never saw Liang boarding her school bus on the date she disappeared.[30][31][32]

Besides, the prosecution based their case solely on circumstantial evidence. Among the circumstantial evidence, there were some evidence showing that Oh forging an alibi for himself. Despite the fact that he was seen driving the school bus Liang last boarded before her disappearance, Oh denied that he was there at the time Liang left the school, and he claimed at around 1pm, he was there at a friend's workshop fixing the faulty brakes of his school bus. This alibi was first presented to Liang's father when he suspected and confronted Oh during the twelve days before the discovery of his daughter's corpse.[5] However, the mechanic, Tan Eng Dee, testified in court that Oh did went to his workshop on that day to repair his school bus, but he first came at 9am instead of 1pm. Not only that, Oh was able to lead the police investigators to the location where Liang's school bag and textbooks were abandoned, which were a short distance from where her corpse was discovered, thus providing another connection made between Oh and Liang's death.[33]

Oh also steadily denied being involved in the disappearance and alleged murder of Liang. Oh's lawyers argued in court that Oh's police statements were not made voluntarily and he was abused by his police interrogators during questioning before he complied and gave incriminating statements.[31]

On 11 September 1992, 37-year-old Oh Laye Koh was acquitted of Liang's murder, as the trial judge Amarjeet Singh found insufficient evidence against him, and given that there were only circumstantial but no direct evidence linking Oh to the death of Liang in the prosecution's case, Singh decided to not let Oh come to the stand to give his defence and granted him a discharge amounting to an acquittal.

However, Oh's joy was short-lived, as the prosecution filed an appeal against this decision.[34] Oh Laye Koh also remained in remand behind bars to be investigated and face another trial for the second murder charge relating to the 1982 death case of Norhayah binti Mohamed Ali while the prosecution was pending their appeal to overturn his acquittal.[35] Liang's father was also distressed at the acquittal and wrote petitions to the Attorney-General's Chambers and the Government of Singapore, including one to then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong to seek a review of his daughter's case.[36][37]

After Oh Laye Koh's acquittal, the prosecution filed an appeal against Oh's acquittal, arguing that Oh should give his evidence on the stand and citing several key areas of the circumstantial evidence that called for Oh's explanation and pointed to the alleged guilt of Oh for any crime related to Liang's death, including the fake alibi and lies he made to the police and Liang's family and acquaintances. After hearing the appeal, the Court of Appeal found that the circumstantial evidence against Oh was sufficient to form a mens rea case and hence, they allowed the prosecution's appeal in March 1994 and ordered Oh to be taken back to the High Court for a re-trial.[38]

On 27 April 1994, Oh once again stood trial at the High Court, with the original trial judge, Judicial Commissioner Amarjeet Singh, slated to hear the case a second time. Singh called upon Oh to come to the stand to give his defence. However, Oh chose to remain silent, and he did not call any other witnesses to his defence.[39] Although Oh's lawyer Ramesha Pillai argued that the whole of evidence fell short of the legal requirements to substantiate a charge of murder and cited the prosecution's lack of direct evidence to show that Liang's death was caused by unlawful violence, DPP Jennifer Marie rebutted that Oh was able to lead the police to the area where the victim's belongings were found and he had tried to establish a false alibi and even told lies to Liang's parents and friends to distance himself from any guilt related to Liang's death and Oh's attempt to persuade trial witnesses to lie that Liang never boarded his bus that day. For this, the prosecution pursued a guilty verdict of murder in Oh's case.[40] The verdict was reserved till 3 May 1994.[41]

Oh Laye Koh
Born	c. 1955 Singapore
Died	19 May 1995 (aged 39) Changi Prison, Singapore
Cause of death	Death by hanging
Other names	Oh Ah Ci (胡亚茨 Hú Yàcí)
Criminal status	Executed
Conviction(s)	Murder (1 count) Second murder charge (withdrawn)
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	2 (1 confirmed, 1 suspected)
Date	6 October 1982 (possible) – 2 October 1989
Country	Singapore
Date apprehended	17 October 1989

A week later, on 3 May 1994, Singh made his final verdict on the case.

In his judgement, Singh stated that he was satisfied that Oh's failure to give evidence "arose from a consciousness of guilt" in the face of the circumstantial evidence, and thus drew an adverse inference from Oh's silence. He also accepted the prosecution's arguments and determined that none of the circumstantial evidence were able to show explanatory signs of Oh's supposed innocence after the review of the whole case, and stated the failure of the prosecution to prove the cause of death or exact crime was not a reason to find Oh not guilty.

In his verdict, Singh cited in his own words:

I am constrained to draw an irresistable inference, that you (Oh) were the last person to see the deceased (Liang) and you had intentionally caused her death and that the death was not suicidal or accidental. Although the prosecution was unable to identify the unlawful act, it is not necessary, in my opinion always to do so.[42]

As such, 38-year-old Oh Laye Koh was found guilty of murder in relation to 17-year-old Liang Shan Shan's death, and consequently, he was sentenced to death. Oh, who was at first smiling, chatting with the guards and waving at his family and friends prior to the verdict, was reportedly shocked and filled with horror after the guilty verdict was interpreted to him in Hokkien (a common Chinese language dialect), and before Oh was taken out of the courtroom, he shouted in Hokkien, "It is unfair! It is unfair!".[40][43][11]

After Oh was sentenced to death for Liang's murder, the prosecution withdrew the second murder charge against Oh for killing his first victim Rohayah binti Mohamed Ali back in 1982.[3]