SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): A 66-year-old man was arrested at a Housing Board flat in Ang Mo Kio for the suspected murder of a 67-year-old woman on Nov 29.
The woman was found lying motionless in a unit at Block 125 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The police said they received a call for assistance at about 1.25am.
Preliminary investigations showed that both parties knew each other. Investigations are ongoing.
The man was arrested at the scene and will be charged with murder on Nov 30. If found guilty, he faces the death penalty.
Including this incident, there have been eight cases of murder or alleged murder in Singapore so far in 2024.
When The Straits Times visited the fourth-floor unit at about 1pm, there was a police notice at the flat.
The notice said that the unit had been locked for investigations, and informed the public not to remove the lock.
A next-door neighbour, who wanted to be known only as Madam Rahimah, said both parties lived together, and loud arguments could often be heard from the unit.
She said she initially thought the pair were a married couple, but heard from the woman’s friends that they were friends.
The 55-year-old housewife, who has lived in the block for 10 years, said she once saw the woman with injuries on her face.
Madam Rahimah said that at about 11am on Nov 28, she heard noise from the neighbouring unit, before it remained quiet for the rest of the day.
“When my husband came home from work at about 8.30pm, he also commented that it was unusually quiet.”
Another neighbour living on the same floor said her family did not hear anything out of the ordinary on the night of Nov 28, partly because of the heavy rain.
The neighbour, who declined to be named, said of the woman: “She doesn’t really talk to the rest of the neighbours, she mostly keeps to herself.
“But sometimes I would hear her scolding somebody the whole night. She would be grumbling loudly.”
A friend of the victim, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lim, addressed the woman as “Ah Hua”.
She said the victim and the suspect had known each other for more than 10 years, but she does not know how they met.
According to Madam Lim, the victim, who had lived in the unit for more than 40 years, was a divorcee with four children.
The victim took pity on the suspect, who did not have a place to stay, and allowed him to live in the unit, added Madam Lim, who visited the scene on Nov 29 in the afternoon.
Additional reporting by Caelyn Tan - The Straits Times/ANN