Everything About the Woodlands Murder Whereby a Man Slept With The Bodies for a Week

Every so often, you come across articles that restore that light of hope, that elusive faith in humanity, when you’re just about done with mankind.

But every so often too, you stumble upon articles that seemed to have been pulled out of the Dark Web:

Stuff that’s so dark in nature it’s making Jack The Ripper call for his mummy.

And this particular article you’re about to read, rather unfortunately, belongs to the latter, so…

Leave while you still can.

Everything About the Woodlands Murder Whereby a Man Slept With The Bodies for a Week

One week before Chinese New Year in 2017, debt-ridden property agent Teo Ghim Heng did the unthinkable:

He strangled his wife, who was six months pregnant, and their four-year-old daughter.

After that, he reportedly slept on the same bed as the bodies for one week in his Woodlands flat and had the air-conditioner turned on to delay decomposition.

During the period, he also searched the Internet for ways to commit suicide, vacating the flat only to purchase food and air freshener. He then set fire to the bodies and allegedly tried to kill himself in the blaze as well, but retreated when the heat proved too much.

When his wife’s family asked about her whereabouts, he reportedly gave excuses. and they eventually dialled the police on the first day of Chinese New Year.

The couple married in 2009, and it was the second marriage for both parties.

Being a long-time property agent, Teo previously worked at Savills Residential, SLP Scotia Property Agency, HSR and Propnex Singapore. In 2016, he switched to a sales coordinator with Carpentry Design Works as he was not doing well in the trade.

According to TODAYonline, the high court heard that Teo was a gambler who sustained debts of at least $120,000 at the end of 2016, but kept the extent of his debts a secret from his wife. He had borrowed money from his colleagues over the years and racked up a sizeable amount of credit card debts as well as overdue kindergarten school fees, and reportedly spent several hundred dollars a week on 4D.

Cold-blooded murder

According to Teo’s statements to the police, he and Madam Choong, a housewife, had an argument on 18 Jan 2017, about his financial problems. He reportedly told her that he owed a total of $70,000 and could not afford their daughter’s kindergarten fees.

Two days after that, the argument resurfaced in the master bedroom.

According to reports, Teo told police that he coiled a towel around Madam Choong’s neck and pulled both ends for around 15 minutes. When she was still faintly breathing after the ordeal, he strangled her with his bare hands until all breathing on her part ceased.

His daughter, who was supposed to attend kindergarten later that day, had changed and was in the same room throughout playing with her toys and watching TV.

She was strangled by Teo as well.

Whereabouts

In the eight days before the discovery, Teo claimed he had attempted suicide but failed. He also switched off his phone to avoid contact with his creditors and texted his daughter’s kindergarten teachers that she was unwell. As for his wife’s side, he reportedly churned out multiple excuses to his in-laws, and dodged requests by his wife’s family to speak to her. He also slept next to the bodies and surfed the Internet, and suicide searches would eventually found in his Internet history.

During this time period, his colleagues and brother-in-law would visit the Woodlands flat on three occasions to no avail. To force him to open the door, one of Teo’s colleagues even tripped the main power switch outside, but he refused to leave the house.

It all changed, however, on 28 Jan.

On the first day of Chinese New Year, Madam Choong’s brother Gordon Choong came by to visit the flat again, and he allegedly found the door and metal gate locked, and the windows closed. He called his sister’s name, but there was no reply.

That evening, he returned once again with his brother-in-law, Mr Chris Lam Kwek Fah, and knocked on the doors and windows once again, all the while shouting the victims’ names. It was then that Mr Choong forced open one of the windows and noticed a pungent odour that smelled like a gas leak. Calling the police, he said:

“There is no respond (sic) from my sister and I can smell gas coming out from the unit.”

Officers responded to the call, and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was summoned. Just as the firefighters were about to break into the flat using force, Teo opened the door.

Mr Choong then demanded to know about his sister’s whereabouts, and Teo lied that she had gone out. While Mr Choong continued shouting at Teo to account for his lies, the firefighters requested the latter to unlock the gate. Refusing to do so at first, Teo eventually caved in when he was told that the firefighters would use force if needed to.

While firefighters were entering the flat, Mr Choong allegedly shouted angrily at Teo, demanding to know about his sister’s whereabouts. At this, Teo walked very close to his brother-in-law and reportedly said in “a calm and soft voice”:

His sister was dead.

It Was My Fault

After that, Teo tried to make a break for it, but his brother-in-law managed to grab his shirt as he tried to flee. Police officers and firefighters intervened to pin both men down along the common corridor, as firefighters from inside the flat revealed a charred body lying on the bed in the master bedroom.

When asked what had happened, Teo reportedly replied in Mandarin:

“It was my fault.”

Adding that he had poured thinner and set his wife and child ablaze as they slept earlier that day, the officers then discovered a second body of a child, with the feet completely burnt.

Teo was subsequently arrested for murder.

Later on, while awaiting officers from the Criminal Investigation Department’s Special Investigation section, Teo apparently lied to the police that he had made a suicide pact with his wife a couple of weeks before and that setting his family on fire was part of this pact.

According to reports, he later admitted that he had strangled his wife and child.

He was later brought back to the crime scene for a re-enactment.

Sentencing

Over the course of the trial (which is set to run for the rest of this week and into next week), the prosecution’s set to call in around 60 witnesses to testify in court.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Han Ming Kuang, Dillon Kok and Ng Jun Chong also revealed plans to call a consultant from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), who will testify that Teo was examined while held and determined to have no mental disorder.

The lead defence lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam told the court, however, that a report from Changi General Hospital, where Teo had been warded a day after his arrest, dictates that the hospital’s psychiatric team had diagnosed Teo with depression with homicidal intent and persistent suicidal intent.

Apparently, Teo might have additional incentives for murder as well.

“The accused felt Pei Shan should have contributed to the household income by working,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Han Ming Kuang.

“He also never fully forgave her for an affair she had a few years back, and strongly suspected that Zi Ning was not his biological daughter.”

Teo, 43, is charged with killing his wife and daughter on 20 Jan 2017, with the intention of causing death.

If found guilty of murder, he faces the death penalty.