SINGAPORE — When his sister Choong Pei Shan did not turn up for their Chinese New Year reunion dinner, Mr Choong Mun Chen started to suspect that something was wrong.

In an emotional testimony on Tuesday (July 2), he told the High Court that his misgivings grew when their mother told him the next day that his four-year-old niece was at the home of the girl’s paternal aunt.

He told her that it was not possible, because his sister and niece were “very close to each other”.

Their father grew worried because Choong was also pregnant, and had been looking forward to having another child with her husband Teo Ghim Heng.

In a tragic turn of events, on Jan 28, 2017 when Teo finally let in police officers into his flat, Mr Choong was there and Teo told him in Mandarin: “Your sister is dead.”

The charred bodies of Mr Choong’s sister and his niece were found lying on the bed in the master bedroom.

Teo, who is now 43, is standing trial for strangling his wife and child to death eight days before he was finally apprehended. The couple were having financial difficulties and could not pay the girl’s kindergarten fees. 

Teo burned their bodies in the flat and he claimed that he tried to kill himself by lying next to them on the bed, but felt that the blaze was too hot.

He has admitted to killing them, but prosecutors said that his lawyers will likely argue for a general exception to murder, meaning there was grave and sudden provocation, a sudden fight, or diminished responsibility.

MISSING FROM FAMILY DINNERS

On Tuesday, Mr Choong took the witness stand and was questioned about the events of that period.

Throughout his testimony, Teo, dressed in a purple prison jumpsuit with his hair shorn close to his head, remained bent over with his head down while seated in the dock.

Mr Choong, dressed in all black and was sometimes sniffling and choking on his words, told the court that his sister broke their family tradition that year.

Their relatives would always gather at his parents’ home on the first day of Chinese New Year, but his sister did not respond as to whether she would be there. 

That morning, on Jan 20, 2017, Mr Choong called her on her mobile phone. Teo answered and told him she was taking a shower.

By this time, she was already dead.

Teo used her mobile phone to communicate with their family members, usually pretending to be her. He also told them that his wife had stomach cramps and needed to go to the hospital, that was why she did not turn up at their reunion dinner the previous evening either.

Later that afternoon, Mr Choong went over to the couple’s Woodlands flat to check on her. No one responded to his knocks and calls, and a neighbour told him that he did not see mother or daughter leaving the flat.

Mr Choong’s mother called him later, saying Teo told her that he and the wife had “a big fight” and she had kicked him out of the flat.

Mr Choong told the court: “I asked my mother, where is the little girl? My mother told me that according to (Teo), the girl is at his sister’s place. I told my mother, ‘How could that be possible?’ My late sister and the little girl were very close to each other. So I told my mother that this was not normal, it shouldn't be like this.”

Mr Choong’s father also rang him, asking how he felt about this. The younger man told him something was not right, as his sister was not responding to his many calls and the phone would get cut off sometimes.

The older man said he was “very worried” because Choong was pregnant. Mr Choong then went back to the Woodlands flat with another brother-in-law.

They smelled something strange coming from the flat when they pried open a window, so Mr Choong called the police.

When the authorities called out his name, Teo suddenly opened the door. He lied that his wife had gone out when Mr Choong asked where she was, before opening the gate for the police officers and firefighters to enter.

Mr Choong recounted: “I shouted at him again, ‘Where is my sister? Tell me.’ He came very close to my face and he told me, ‘Your sister is dead’, and he dashed off.”

ASKED TO BORROW S$100,000

Separately, Mr Choong told the court that Teo had called him a few months before the murders, asking to borrow S$100,000 from him.

Teo said he needed it to help his own brother, who owed people money.

Teo, a former property agent, had helped Mr Choong to sell his old flat, and was asking him for help because he had earned S$200,000 from the sale.

However, Mr Choong refused to lend Teo the money.

He also said that while his sister usually kept to herself, he knew she was looking forward to the pregnancy. After their monthly dinners, she would point out baby clothing during walks around a shopping mall, Mr Choong added.

Besides Mr Choong, Staff Sergeant Nur Farhana Mohamad Nasir, who was the first respondent to the scene on Jan 28, 2017, also took the stand.

Video footage from her and other police officers’ body-worn cameras were played in court.

In the footage, Teo claimed that he took more than 100 Panadol (paracetamol) pills earlier and was supposed to set fire to himself too, but was too scared to do it. He and his wife had made a suicide pact a few weeks ago, he alleged.

The trial continues on Wednesday.