Grisly legless body find: Two Pakistanis held for murder

SINGAPORE — In the span of less than six hours yesterday, two Pakistani men were nabbed as suspects in the case of the legless body found stuffed in a bloodied suitcase along Syed Alwi Road on Wednesday, and the victim’s legs were found in a luggage bag dumped at a cemetery nearby.

The victim is believed to be a 59-year-old Pakistani man, while the murder suspects are aged 25 and 43. It is unknown if the three are related, but TODAY understands they were all here on social visit passes.

Up till nearly noon yesterday, police officers were still canvassing residents and shopkeepers near where the body was found, showing them pictures of the two suspects.

Only hours later, though, at 3pm, they nabbed the duo at a tourist lodge along Rowell Road, which is only two streets away from the gruesome find.

And at around 8pm, the legs — dismembered at the thighs — were found in a piece of luggage at a Muslim cemetery at Jalan Kubor, a short distance from Syed Alwi Road. The cemetery, which is next to the Madrasah Aljunied Al Islamiah and close to Stamford Primary School, lies across Rochor River.

The suspects are being held for investigations for murder and will be taken to court tomorrow.

The scale of police operations resulting in the suspects being tracked down less than 24 hours after the dismembered body was discovered emerged in a news release the police issued yesterday evening.

More than 100 officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the Police Intelligence Department, and the Central and Tanglin Police Divisions were involved in sweeping the area, as well as conducting intensive probes and ground queries in the vicinity.

Among the areas they covered was the nearby Mustafa Shopping Centre in Little India. A worker at the mall told Chinese evening dailies that when police officers showed him the pictures of two suspects yesterday morning, he instantly recognised the older man, who had bought a S$119 electric saw from them on Wednesday morning.

He added that the man, who was in the shop for only about five minutes, was captured on their surveillance footage, which police officers asked to view.

Residents said officers were searching their corridors on Wednesday night, while shopkeepers TODAY spoke to also said the police had asked them for footage from their closed-circuit television cameras.

Mr Hoong Wee Teck, deputy commissioner of police (investigations and intelligence) and director of CID, said: “This is a serious crime which the police had devoted extensive resources and efforts to have it solved expeditiously. The police are committed to solve crimes and we will spare no effort to track down criminals and ensure that they are brought to justice and face the full brunt of the law.”

The legless body was discovered at about 6pm on Wednesday after eyewitnesses saw the bloodstained hands of an 81-year-old rag-and-bone man who was trying to heave a bag onto a shopping trolley.

He was later taken away by the police to help with investigations.

Two men, believed to be tourists, were also seen helping him. TODAY understands the pair are not the suspects arrested.

When TODAY went back to the crime scene, bloodstains could still be seen on the road and pavement. Plain-clothes police officers were also seen combing the scene at about 1pm.

Shopkeepers along Syed Alwi Road, which has many second-hand stores that buy discarded items from rag-and-bone men, shed some light on who the 81-year-old is.

Mr Lim Tian Poh, 61, who has been running a second-hand business there for about a decade, said the old man started going to his store to sell him things about one year ago.

The old man behaved eccentrically at times and was socially awkward, he added. “Sometimes, when he comes to sell things and I ask him what’s inside the bags that he wants to sell, he doesn’t reply to me.”