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ITE College Central murder: Victim’s ex-husband arrested

SINGAPORE — The 66-year-old man who allegedly murdered his ex-wife in the Institute of Education (ITE) College Central’s car park on Thursday (July 19) has been arrested on Friday (July 20).

Low Hwee Geok, Michelle, 56, (left) was found murdered in ITE College Central's car park (right) on Thursday night (July 19, 2018). Photos: ITE, Jason Quah/TODAY

Low Hwee Geok, Michelle, 56, (left) was found murdered in ITE College Central's car park (right) on Thursday night (July 19, 2018). Photos: ITE, Jason Quah/TODAY

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SINGAPORE — The 66-year-old man who allegedly murdered his ex-wife in the Institute of Education (ITE) College Central’s car park on Thursday (July 19) was arrested on Friday (July 20).

The man, who is still warded at Tan Tock Seng Hospital with serious injuries on his body, had purportedly stabbed his ex-wife Michelle Low Hwee Geok in the car park.

It is understood that he had also stabbed himself, and was sent to hospital on Thursday.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it had received a call for medical assistance at the Ang Mo Kio campus at around 7.40pm on Thursday. SCDF paramedics  found Low lying motionless and pronounced her dead at the scene.

The police have classified the case as murder and investigations are ongoing.

The site where a 56-year-old ITE director was allegedly stabbed by her ex-husband on Thursday (July 18). Photo: Chng Shao Kai/TODAY

Shocked at the news that the 56-year-old director of ITE’s examinations division had been murdered, 15 of her friends and family members turned up at the morgue on Friday.

At least three of her sisters were there on Friday morning, before being joined by other family members, including the deceased’s daughter.

Declining to speak to the media, they said they did not know what might have happened.

One of her sisters, who declined to give her name, confirmed that her alleged attacker was her ex-husband.

Several members of her church also turned up at the morgue. Among them was Dr Ian Buntain, lead pastor of Grace Baptist Church.

“She was a lovely, joyful soul, very gentle … she always smiled. Everyone who met her loved her, so it’s quite a tragedy for everyone. People should know that she made a great impact on those who knew her,” he said.

Although he didn’t know anything about her personal life, Dr Buntain said she was a regular member of his church, and very faithful. He said he had just baptised her last Christmas.

On the church’s blog page, Low wrote about her conversion to Christianity. Coming from a family where her parents practised rites influenced by Confucianism, she said she was led to Grace Baptist Church by her search for values to anchor her teenage daughter.

She started “talking” to God and asked him “be (her) psychologist”, before joining the Ladies’ Precept Bible Class, which she said provided a good foundation for a new believer like her.

“A year on, a colleague whom I have not met for a while commented that I have this glow of peace, and asked what did I do. It has to be — I found God, or rather, He found me (peace being a characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit)!” she wrote.

Pastor Oliver Chia, 46, said the deceased was very close to the women’s bible study group, and occasionally brought her daughter to church too. She did not share much about her personal life.

"She’s committed, faithful and generally quite pleasant … I spoke to her about three times in the past six months … We shared some encouragement,” he said, adding he last met her a couple of weeks ago.

A blog post by the church on Friday said Low left behind an 18-year-old daughter, seven sisters, and a mother.

Back at ITE College Central, students interviewed by TODAY said they were unperturbed by the incident since it was a “one-off” event targeting a specific person

Text messages were disseminated among the student body to reassure them and remind them not to circulate any photos of the incident.

Long Wei Long, 16, said that the general atmosphere in the school on Friday was “the same”. “I just told (my parents) to keep calm,” he added.

Cheryl Tan, 17, who was with her mother, a housewife who wanted to be known only as Madam Chua, 50, had some concerns in the wake of the incident.

“We were all very scared and kept spamming the class chat,” said Cheryl. “So the teacher told us to chill and let the police deal with it first and not to spread any rumours.”

In a Facebook post on Friday, ITE said the school is “deeply saddened by the passing of our staff” and would be providing her family their support.

“She was very well regarded by her colleagues for her warm personality, as well as passion and professionalism in her work,” ITE added, saying the school’s management met with staff in the examinations division “to ensure their well-being, as well as provide support and counselling”.

ITE also reiterated: “This is an isolated incident involving a staff and her ex-husband. We would like to assure students, staff and members of the public that security measures are in place to safeguard the safety of our campus.”

A text message reportedly sent to the ITE student body to assure them the incident is a one-off case. These texts have been sent on group chats, according to two students. Photo: Justin Ong Guang-Xi/TODAY

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JUSTIN ONG GUANG-XI

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