Teck Whye murder: 35-year-old victim’s housemate arrested
SINGAPORE — A dispute between two housemates at Teck Whye Crescent turned deadly on Wednesday (Aug 16) morning, with one of them found dead with stab wounds to the chest.
SINGAPORE — A pre-dawn dispute between housemates took a deadly turn on Wednesday (Aug 16), with the altercation spilling into the corridor of their housing block and ending with a man collapsing from stab wounds on a pavement.
The bare-chested body of the 35-year-old victim — whose girlfriend named as Mohammad Roslan Zaini — was spotted by a passer-by on a pavement near Block 165A, Teck Whye Crescent at 4.42am.
The police arrived at the scene shortly and the victim, who is thought to have suffered stab wounds to the chest, was pronounced dead by paramedics. Less than six hours later, a 48-year-old man was arrested at a nearby block in connection with the case, which has been classified as murder.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the incident is believed to have arisen from a dispute between the deceased and the suspect,” the police said in a news release, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
When TODAY reached the scene at around 10am, the victim’s body was covered with a blue police tent while investigators searched for evidence.
A woman who arrived in tears identified herself as the victim’s girlfriend and gave her name as Azlin. She said they had been dating since May and last met two days ago. Her boyfriend was quarrelling with a housemate named Rosli, she added, but did not know what the row was about.
Roslan’s next-door neighbours, Mr Frankie Tan, 49, and Ms Ika Fauzi, 25, said the housemate the victim’s girlfriend referred to used to sleep in the stairway. Roslan invited the man to stay with him about six months ago out of pity, warehouse assistant Mr Tan added. They did not know what Roslan worked as, but described him as “friendly”. Ms Ika and another neighbour said Roslan would play or joke with their children.
Bloodstains could be seen along the corridor, the front doors of neighbouring flats and the stairwell closest to the victim’s fourth-floor unit, from which neighbours briefly heard a quarrel at about 10pm the previous night.
Many of them said they did not check on the commotion because fights and squabbles were not uncommon at the unit, where two to three other men lived with the victim.
A 46-year-old neighbour who declined to be named said things appeared to have cooled off on Tuesday night as he heard people “laughing and enjoying themselves”. But at around 4am things erupted again, going by the accounts of several neighbours.
Fourth-floor resident Sasha Nuraisah, 31, a housewife, who was up watching a Korean show at that time, said they heard a woman shouting in Malay: “You don’t be crazy.” Part-time student Fauzie Husni, 24, who lives on the second floor, heard the same thing.
Mr Navin Ram, 24, who lives two doors away from Roslan, said his brother and mother heard a loud clanking sound, which sounded like metal hitting against railings.
Others heard noises that sounded like things being flung around the house, followed by people running. “Two to three people could be heard running down the stairs. One said: ‘Faster, run’ in Malay. A lady’s voice was also heard,” said Mr Ram.
A 57-year-old man living on the fifth floor said he saw a dark-complexioned man dressed in a grey shirt and jeans running back to the unit where Roslan lived. “He (looked like he) was panicking,” he said.