The Geylang Bahru Family Murders is one that will grip your heart especially since it is still unsolved.
This happened in Singapore on the morning of 6 January 1979.
Four innocent children from the Tan family were found lifeless and violently murdered in their one bedroom flat. The four children, aged between 5 and 10 years old, were found slashed to death in the bathroom of their one-room flat in Block 58 Geylang Bahru. Their parents, Mr and Mrs Tan Kuen Chai, were at work when the murders took place.
The victims were Tan Kok Peng, 10, Tan Kok Hin, 8, Tan Kok Soon, 6, and their sister, Tan Chin Nee, 5. The three boys studied at Bendemeer Road Primary School, while their sister attended a nearby kindergarten – regular public schools that most of us in Singapore attend.
The Tans had a little transportation business where they had a mini-bus which they used to transport students/children to their school and they operated together. Just like other weekdays, they left at 635am and went on about their business.
Their children were sleeping when they left. Mrs Tan telephoned home at 7.10 am to wake them up as usual, but received no response after three separate calls. She then asked one of her neighbours to help wake them up. The neighbour knocked on the door of their flat, but also received no response.
The Tans arrived home after 10 am when Mrs Tan found the slashed bodies of her children in the bathroom. The four children were found in T-shirts and pants, and all four had slash wounds on their heads. Slash wounds were also found on Chin Nee’s face and Kok Peng’s right arm was almost severed. According to the pathologist’s report, each child had a minimum of 20 slash wounds on his or her body.
Police actually described this as ‘inhuman.
The police were able to conclude that the murders were premeditated and that the perpetrator or perpetrators had taken care to avoid leaving incriminating evidence behind. Yes, the number of people involved in the murders was not determined either.
However, there were bloodstains in the kitchen sink and the killer or killers were believed to have cleaned themselves before leaving the flat. Clearly they knew the ins and outs and the time they had to themselves.
There was no evidence of forced entry, and the flat was not ransacked nor were there any items reported missing. The murder weapons, believed to be a chopper taken from the kitchen of the flat as well as a dagger, were nowhere to be found.
The investigation into the murders was conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department’s Special Investigation Section. They did not establish a definitive motive but acknowledged the possibility of the killings being motivated by revenge. Mrs Tan’s brother told the media that the murders could have been related to an illegal tontine* scheme, and police pursued the possibility of the killer being a discontented gambler.
However, that angle of investigations did not lead to the murderer and the Tans told the media that they had not offended anyone.
The murderer(s) were apparently aware that Mrs Tan had undergone sterilisation after the birth of her last child.
In addition, the Tans received a greeting card two weeks after the murder, which may or may not have been a hoax. The card showed happy children at play and taunted them with the words “now you can have no more offspring ha-ha-ha” and was signed “the murderer” in Mandarin. The sender of the card also appeared to have intimate knowledge of the family as they addressed the Tans by their nicknames, “Ah Chai” and “Ah Eng”.
Police left no stones unturned but could not gather anything that gave even the slightest clue as to what may have happened or any body with any form of involvements.
A witness told Chinese newspapers he saw a couple, one of them bloodstained, leaving the scene of the murder, but police investigations later revealed it to be a hoax. One of the Tans’ neighbours, 68-year-old Yam Yin Tin, said she usually sat along the common corridor to watch children playing, and would have seen anyone coming and going from the Tan family’s flat. However, on the morning of the murders, she was washing her hair and did not see anyone entering or leaving the Tans’ flat.
A taxi driver from later reported that a man in his 20s who walked with a lurch had boarded his taxi near Block 96 along Kallang Bahru Road, near the location of the murder, at about 8 am that morning. The taxi driver said that the man had bloodstains on the left side of his body and carried a knife that “banged against the taxi door” when he alighted.
Mr Tan was able to match the description to one of his neighbours, a Malaysian man who came over frequently to their flat to use the phone. He was also known as ‘uncle’. The taxi driver was also able to identify him in a police line-up but the neighbour was released after two weeks due to a lack of evidence connecting him to the murders. The man, who was Malaysian, later moved out of Block 58 with his sister. Who is this man? Did Mrs Tan say something to the sister about babies or…? Did she unknowingly offend someone? Some say Mrs Tan was having an affair with this man and he got fed up when she refused to leave the kids for him.
Another family member was also a suspect. Apparently, this family member had asked Mrs Tan to get a lottery ticket and that ticket had won. However, Mrs Tan had told him that she had forgotten to buy the ticket but when the Tans purchased the mini van, the suspicions became true. Once again, there was nothing to prove this right. The family member too disappeared after awhile.
The children were buried at Choa Chu Kang Cemetery on 7 January 1979 together with their schoolbags, books and toys. The murderer or murderers were never caught and brought to justice. The Tans gave up their mini-bus operation and found work at a plastic bag machining firm soon after.
The Tans also registered with the Social Welfare Department, hoping to adopt two children. Eventually, Mrs Tan underwent a sterilisation reversal operation and was able to conceive again. On 30 December 1983, at the age of 35, she gave birth to a baby boy. This is where you know this couple truly deserved to be parents and had good karma. They really wanted to have children so they did.
I myself wonder how they explained the death of their previous four children to their newborn and just how it must have felt all these years not knowing.
Whatever it may be, I really hope the four children are playing in the heavens above.
Keep your chakras aligned. Tata.
*Tontine – an annuity shared by subscribers to a loan or common fund, the shares increasing as subscribers die until the last survivor enjoys the whole income.
Resources :
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19790107-1.2.3
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19790107-1.2.3
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