On 6 Jan 1979, four children between the ages of 5 and 10 were found brutally slashed to death in their flat in Geylang Bahru, Singapore. The case remains unsolved to this date.
1979年1月6日一大清早，四名5至10岁的孩童在芽笼峇鲁组屋住家内，总共被人狂砍超过80多刀，浴血惨死在窄小的厕所内。血案令人发指，尽管警方全力追查，盘问超过百名家属亲友和邻居，却始终无法找到可靠证据破案，冷血凶手至今仍逍遥法外。
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(WIKIPEDIA) - The Geylang Bahru family murders occurred in Singapore on 6 Jan 1979. All four children in the Tan family were found dead in their level 4 flat at Block 58, Geylang Bahru.
They were hacked and slashed to death and their bodies were left piled on top of one another.
The children ranged from 5 to 10 years of age at the time of death.
Their parents, Tan Kuen Chai (Chinese: 陈昆才; pinyin: Chén Kūncái) and Lee Mei Ying (李美英; Lí Měiyīng), were out working at the time of the murders.
The police interviewed over a hundred people who were possible suspects. However, the case remains unsolved to this date.
Sequence of Events
At 06:35 hrs SGT, Tan and Lee left for work. They operated a minibus service that transported students to school.
Their children, Tan Kok Peng (陈国平; Chén Guópíng), 10, Tan Kok Hin (陈国兴; Chén Guóxīng), 8, Tan Kok Soon (陈国顺; Chén Guóshùn), 6, and Tan Chin Nee (陈珍妮; Chén Zhēnnī), 5, were fast asleep at the time.
The older three, all boys, were students at Bendemeer Road Primary School, while their younger sister attended a nearby People's Association kindergarten.
At 07:10 hrs SGT, their mother phoned them three times to wake them up, but received no answer.
She then proceeded to ask a neighbour to help wake the children up.
The neighbour knocked on the door, but also received no reply. She then left the scene.
When the couple returned home just after 10 am, Lee was confronted with the gruesome shock of seeing the bodies of her children in the bathroom.
The dead children had been left piled on top of one another in their t-shirts and underwear, with many slash wounds all over their heads.
The right arm of Kok Peng, the oldest child, had almost been severed, while Chin Nee, the youngest child, had slash wounds on her face.
The children were reported to have at least 20 slash wounds each or at least 80 slash wounds cumulatively.
Investigation
Singapore police concluded that the murders were premeditated and that the killer(s) had taken care to avoid leaving evidence.
However, there were bloodstains in the kitchen sink and the killer(s) appeared to have cleaned himself/themselves prior to leaving the flat.
There was no evidence of forced entry, the flat had not been ransacked, and no items were reported missing.
The murder weapons, which were believed to have been a cleaver and a dagger, were never found.
The eldest son, Kok Peng, is believed to have put up a fight with the killer, as several strands of long hair were found in his right hand.
The investigation was conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department's Special Investigation Section.
They were unable to identify a motive but inferred that the murders were motivated by vengeance.
The police also believed that the perpetrator(s) had personal knowledge of the Tans and their circumstances, as they were seemingly aware that Lee had undergone sterilisation after the birth of her last child: the Tans received a Chinese New Year card two weeks after the murder, depicting happy children playing together with the words "Now you can have no more offspring, ha-ha-ha" in Chinese. It was signed off as "the murderer".
The sender addressed the parents by their personal nicknames, "Ah Chai" and "Ah Eng", further amplifying the theory that it was someone with close relations to or knowledge of the family.
Aftermath
The children were buried on 7 Jan 1979 at Choa Chu Kang Chinese Cemetery along with some of their belongings.
Their parents subsequently ceased their self-employed minibus business and started work at a company that produced PVC materials.
Five years after the incident, Lee managed to reverse the sterilisation that she had undergone prior to the murder, and gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
The couple later had a daughter.
In 2004, True Files, a Singaporean crime show, re-enacted the murders of the Tan children and the adaptation was aired as the final episode of the show's third season.
In 2021, Shin Min Daily News revealed that Tan Kuen Chai had died many years before and Lee Mei Ying was still alive (in her 70s) and is living with her grandson.
There was also new information received from an old neighbour's tip-off, which revived the investigation of the case.
A 2022 crime show Inside Crime Scene re-enacted the Geylang Bahru child murders and aired the adaptation as its second episode.
Source: [ Ссылка ]
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