The Geylang Bahru

This is one of Singapore’s most famous mysteries. On January 6, 1979, the kids of Tan Kuen Chai and Lee Mei Ying were brutally killed. They were slashed to end and piled up on each other. 

They were 10-years-old Tan Kok Peng, 8-years-old Tan Kok Hin, and 6-year-old Tan Kok Soon, and the youngest and only girl, Tan Chin Nee was 5-year-old.  

On the morning of the killing, both Tan Kuen Chai and Lee Mei Ying left for the job at around 6:35 am, according to the website unsolved casebook. com. They had a routine of starting work before going back house to take the kids to school. At around 7:10, the mother phoned the house to wake up the kids. There was no reply and she attempted three more times before she phoned her neighbor. She asked her if she could knock on the gate to check up on them but after three attempts there was no reply. 

They went back home around 10-am only to discover their kids slashed to death on the toilet floor. Each kid had around 20 slashes on their corpses, including their hands and neck. The oldest was believed to have fought with the murderer as his fist was clutching a long piece of hair and his right arm was severed. It’s been acknowledged the oldest attempted to save his siblings. Though the killing was done brutally, the scene was perfect. 

Detectives told that there were no indications of forced entry and there were little to no signs of blood anywhere in the flat.

According to the website ships. sg, the inquiry was completed by the Criminal Investigation Department’s Special Investigation Section. They thought that the killing weapons were a chopper and a blade both of which were brought from the kitchen but never discovered. They questioned one hundred of the neighbors and nothing was discovered. The pieces of hair discovered in the first of oldest directed nowhere as the DNA testing back then wasn’t as developed as it is today.

The parents collected a letter two weeks after the killing which verified the truth that they realized the killer of their kids well.

The letter was a Chinese New Year Card which was written in mandarin and signed by “The Murderer”. The killer referred to both of them with their nicknames and told, “Now you can have no more children ” which was very particular since only a few people realized about the mother’s situation. After the birth of the youngest girl, the mother had a sterilization surgery which made her barren.

The only key and probable suspect the department ever got was disclosed due to insufficient proof. A taxi driver had told that he had picked up a sketchy man around Bahru Road, which was around the killing scene. The driver told that his left side was covered in drops of blood and he had a knife with him which clanged against the door when going. In a lineup, the family recognized him as “uncle”, a neighbor of theirs who they saw day and would go in to use their phone. He was discharged two weeks after being put in prison due to lack of proof and that was the last hint they had.

 To this day, the killer was never caught but many have suspicions about what could have occurred. One belief posted on beingshreya.com is that the family was accused of a mob and owed them money which led them to murder the children to frighten them into paying back. Another theory was that the mother was having a relationship with the “uncle” man which wouldn't be too untrue since he was rather close to the family. The kids would have had no danger letting him into the house that morning and he was covered in blood the day it happened near the event.

    Though these are just concepts it seems that’s all it will ever be as it's been 40 years since the killings and nothing has been discovered.