The tragic deaths of an estranged couple — which occurred two days before their divorce proceedings were finalized — saw 43-year-old Cheung Thiam Teng throw himself out the bedroom window of his wife’s eighth floor unit after he had snuck into her apartment, hit her with a crowbar, and caused her to first fall to the ground below dressed only in her underwear.
The police had earlier received a call for help from her, where she claimed “someone is threatening to kill me”. But when they responded to the call, they found her body already at the foot of a block at Geylang condo Silverscape. It was not clear if she had jumped or if he had pushed her.
She was pronounced dead later on at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
A Coroner’s Inquiry yesterday found that Cheung had committed suicide after he “unlawfully killed” his 30-year-old wife, Ly Thi Thu Trang on Apr 30.
He had been spotted drinking and smoking inside the apartment, and when police negotiators attempted to talk him out of jumping from the ledge after his wife had fallen, he ignored them and did not make eye contact.
Hours later, the Singapore Civil Defence Force officers forced their way into the unit to end the standoff, reported Channel NewsAsia. A safety net was deployed to catch him, but he swept it aside with his arms as he jumping off.
Cheung was pronounced dead an hour later at the same hospital his wife died in.
Ly was found to have bruises on her arm, suggesting she was pinched or grabbed roughly, as well as an abrasion on her back. Cheung sustained no physical injuries, but a toxicology report showed he had drugs, including methamphetamine, in his system.
Troubles started brewing in their marriage last September, when Cheung was charged with trespassing his wife’s apartment, wrongful confinement, and causing hurt, among other offences. He was remanded at the Institute of Mental Health, where he told the psychiatrist his suspicions of his wife seeing other men, reported TODAY. But Ly’s family maintained that she had never been unfaithful.
After Cheung attempted to strangle her, Ly had moved out of their home in Woodlands and into Silverscape Condominium to escape from her jealous husband, but he would not let her go and began stalking her.
It is believed that Cheung would loiter in the vicinity of her apartment weekly.
The couple had met in Singapore in 2005, when Vietnam-born Ly was studying here. They got hitched in 2007, and their sons were born in 2008 and 2015. In October 2016, she applied for a Personal Protection Order against him, and subsequently filed for divorce in February this year. Ly had planned to move to Australia with her children.
State Coroner Marvin Bay, who ruled the couple’s deaths as a murder-suicide, said that from his findings, their marriage was marked by violence. He called for the need to take stalking seriously, especially when both parties have “bad blood”; he also urged condominiums to strengthen their security.
