SHOCK No 1: A woman, now known to be a Filipino maid, had been
hacked to death with parts of her body found at Orchard Road and
MacRitchie Reservoir.
Shock No 2 came yesterday: The alleged hack-and-carry killer is not
a man as expected, but a woman.
Click to see larger image
For Filipina Pamela Wee, shock No 3 was news that the police
arrested a fellow Filipina, a maid who works in Singapore.
Mrs Wee, a housewife, had the same reaction as most in the Filipino
community who heard the news that a maid had been arrested
yesterday, at 12.40am.
'The area where the head was found is popular among Filipinos,
especially on Sundays,' she said.
'I already had a bad feeling that it could be a fellow
countryman.'
Then came the question on many lips: 'How does a woman have the
strength to chop the body and carry it around with her?
'Why was she killed in the first place? This case is the only thing
we talked about all day.'
News that the two main characters in the latest body parts case
were Filipina maids had spread quickly among the Filipino community
and was the hot topic in town.
Mrs Wee, 32, who married a Singaporean and moved here from Manila
three years ago, had met up with three other friends outside Lucky
Plaza, a favourite haunt among Filipinos.
She had read from newspapers that a woman's head and limbs had been
found in a blue sports bag outside the busy Orchard MRT station on
Friday.
The woman's torso was later discovered in a suitcase at MacRitchie
Reservoir, clad only in her underwear.
Police believe that she is a 26-year-old Filipina maid but are not
releasing her name until her family back home is informed.
The New Paper on Sunday found out that she is married and is known
as Jane. She came from northern Luzon in the Philippines and has
worked here for a few years.
Less than 12 hours after the body parts were discovered, the police
swooped on Sunglade condominium in Serangoon Ave 2.
There, they took another Filipina maid called Guen back for
questioning. They also seized some red plastic bags and a chopper
with a 17cm-long blade from the apartment.
She was arrested after they interviewed her.
CHARGED TODAY
The suspect, 29, who works for a permanent resident, will be
charged with murder before a magistrate in a special court sitting
today.
Her employers were out of the country when the alleged murder took
place.
Both maids knew each other well and are said to be from the same
province.
The New Paper on Sunday understands that the police are still
trying to establish a motive, and where the killing took
place.
It is still a mystery how the bag was transported to Orchard Rd.
Footage from security cameras at the MRT station did not capture
anything suspicious.
Evidence from the trolley bag at MacRitchie had apparently linked
the suspect to the killing. Could fingerprints have been left
behind?
Jane's slightly decomposed body was found by a cleaner behind the
mosaic wall near Orchard MRT station on Friday during lunch time,
just metres away from the pedestrian walkway.
No identification papers were found on her but the police traced
her through her fingerprints.
How can a woman have the strength to dismember another human being?
While it may seem incredible, this is not the first time that a
woman has dismembered a body.
In 1974, Singaporean housewife Sim Joo Keow, 44, chopped up the
body of her sister-in-law, Ms Kwek Lee Eng, 53, after strangling
her during a fight over money.
Sim had got the idea from seeing fish being chopped up in the
market. She was convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to
murder and jailed 10 years.
The legs were discovered in a shed off Aljunied Road, the head and
arms on a tree by the banks of Kallang River and the torso in Sim's
house in Jalan Besar.
The dispute which led to the murder had been over a sum of $3,000,
which Sim owed.
For now, fellow Filipinos can only wonder what could have happened
between the two women for it to end in a killing.
Ms Mary Dime, 35, a sales assistant at a handphone accessory shop
at Lucky Plaza, thinks it could be a money dispute or
jealousy.
'Maybe the killer got angry with her over another man or it could
just be about money,' said Ms Dime.
'I can't think of what else could lead a person to kill. I'm
interested to know who the two women are because they could very
well be my customers too.'
Officials from the Philippines Embassy met the suspect at the
Police Cantonment Complex yesterday, where she is being held for
investigations.
The embassy has also arranged for a lawyer for her when she appears
in court this morning to face the murder charge.
Other killer maids
FILIPINA Flor Contemplacion, 42, was hanged here for murdering
another Filipino maid and a Singaporean boy in 1991.
Contemplacion had handed over to Mrs Della Maga, 34, a package to
be carried to the Philippines. It was large and heavy, and when Mrs
Maga objected, Contemplacion became angry, strangled her and
drowned Mrs Maga's ward, four-year-old Nicholas Huang.
In 1997, another Filipina, Edna Sumawang, 33, who had come here to
work, was arrested after the killing of her sister-in-law, Mrs
Anita Fuggan, also a maid, in a Pasir Ris flat.
The two women had fought before Sumawang stabbed Mrs Fuggan, 36,
with a pair of scissors. She was found guilty of culpable homicide
not amounting to murder and jailed for three years.