It was a weekend filled with not one, but two bloody HDB murders — one in Geylang Lorong, the other at Yishun.
Geylang: A violent, bloody fight
Over at Lorong 23 Geylang, 52-year-old Goh Eng Thiam was found dead on the kerb of the road following a violent fight, The New Paper reports.
Sporting a deep cut from the left side of his ear to the top of his head, the topless corpse was found on Saturday morning near a coffee shop. Several weapons — including a wooden stick and a knife — were found at the scene.
Workers at the coffee shop where Goh worked described him as a chatty, friendly individual — but he allegedly had a debt problem. His children have since refuted the reports, stating that the deceased would never borrow money from others. So far, no arrests have been made by the police, who’ve classified the case as murder.
Yishun: The death of a loitering “stalker”
That same day, a 26-year-old man was found dead in the corridor on the sixth floor of Block 279 along Yishun Street 22. The bloodied body of Shawn Ignatius Rodrigues — sporting cuts on his face and left arm, with some rope tied around his right wrist — was discovered around 8pm.
Police have already apprehended a suspect. A 20-year-old man known as Ryan — who lives in a flat in the sixth floor — was arrested. A dispute had allegedly occured, escalating into a fight that led to Rodrigues’ death.
Apparently, the deceased had been harassing Ryan for quite some time before the fatal incident. The two knew each other and went to the same Catholic church, but it was two years ago that Rodrigues started “stalking” the suspect, according to Ryan’s sister.
“(Shawn) would come to the flat, banging loudly on the door at odd hours of the day and ask for my brother,” she said to The Straits Times. “He tried to speak to him nicely. He told him to go away many times.”
Since Rodrigues’ alleged stalking started, Ryan had apparently become increasingly agitated and protective of his family.
Residents of the block bolstered claims of Rodrigues’ shadowy behaviour. For the past two years, he would often be seen loitering in the area during odd hours of the day, walking around aimlessly and staring at residents. One elderly resident speaking to Channel NewsAsia even claimed that Rodrigues had attacked her recently, and he only ran away after she shouted for help.
Ryan and Rodrigues have been seen confronting each other at the void deck of the block as well.
Police investigations are ongoing for both cases.
