Man Who Killed Wife & Daughter Then Slept Beside Them for 7 Days Sentenced to Death

The verdict’s out.

And it’s every bit as grisly as the crime before it.

Three years ago, a man killed his pregnant wife and four-year-old daughter in cold blood, and slept beside the corpses for a week.

He was subsequently charged with the intention of causing death.

And now, it appears that the court has finally reached a decision.

Th man was sentenced to death today (12 November), for a case that has since been proclaimed to be a “tragic case” of lives lost and “a family torn asunder”.

Recap of the Woodlands Murders

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-month pregnant, and their four-year-old daughter.

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.

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.

On 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, with suicide searches found in his Internet history for seven days.

He eventually set fire to the bodies.

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.

The bodies were only found when firefighters showed up at the door; Madam Choong’s brother had called the cops on him.

The Verdict

In court, the prosecution argued that Teo had lied to the police and defense psychiatrist to establish a case of diminished responsibility – defined as “suffering from a specific abnormality of mind that substantially impaired his mental responsibility for causing the deaths.”

Or simply put, using a mental illness as a reason for his actions.

Defence lawyers led by Mr Eugene Thuraisingam stated that Teo was suffering from major depressive disorder, and had been significantly provoked.

They requested the court to refrain from convicting Teo of murder, and instead hold him accountable for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

In response, the prosecutors claimed that Tan was mentally capable at the time, as he was able to describe how his wife had reprimanded him in great detail, as well as how he committed the murders.

Justice Kannan Ramesh also concurs, highlighting Teo’s behaviour after the killings as rational in light of the circumstances.

In other words, it’s not due to a mental illness.

According to him, Teo did not appear to be as depressive as the defense lawyers are making him sound, having shown affection towards his wife in text messages and displaying a positive attitude towards his difficult financial circumstances.

His four-year-old daughter had clearly not provoked him as well, as she was reportedly playing with her toys and watching TV at the time.

In the end, the judge rejected all of Teo’s defences: that he was a victim of diminished responsibility, that he suffered significant and striking provocation, and an argument pertaining to the constitutionality of the crimes.

Teo was subsequently given the death penalty.

He was convicted of two counts of murder – one for killing his wife, who was six months pregnant at the time, and the other for killing his daughter, who was four years old at the time.

A third charge for murdering the unborn baby was removed after Teo was convicted.

The defence plans to appeal against the conviction and sentence.

Image: BR Photo Addicted / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purpose only)