On 8 August 2000 in Singapore, a group of three men, who were armed with firearms with an intent to commit robbery, had robbed and killed a taxi driver in midst of a planned crime spree. The victim was a 42-year-old taxi driver named Koh Ngiap Yong (Chinese: 许业荣; pinyin: Xǔ Yèróng), whose taxi was taken by the trio as an escape vehicle for future robbery crimes and whom the three men killed by using a bayonet to stab him to death. In the aftermath of Koh's murder, the robbers had committed yet another robbery and also killed their next victim.
It was only in October 2000 when the three men were finally caught and charged with the murders of Koh and the second victim. The three killers were eventually found guilty in September 2001 and sentenced to be executed by hanging in Changi Prison, resulting in their executions in October 2002.
Crime and investigations
Murder of Koh Ngiap Yong
On 8 August 2000, the day before Singapore’s annual National Day, Koh Ngiap Yong, a taxi driver and father of three children, had just finished driving his daughter to school when he picked up three male Malay passengers, who hailed his TIBS taxi from an area around Bukit Batok. After boarding his taxi, the three men asked Koh to drive them to Chestnut Avenue.
After he drove to Chestnut Avenue and reached a quiet, deserted forest area, the three men suddenly wielded a bayonet and two guns, and threatened Koh, who fearfully tried to plead for his life and offer to pay anything to the robbers, and told them he had a family to feed. The robbers took out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed Koh’s wrists, before the taxi driver was led into the bushes, where one of them used the bayonet to stab Koh several times on the neck and chest, and after which, they took away Koh’s wallet and the handcuff and they left the taxi driver to die from his wounds beneath the vegetation as the trio drove off in Koh’s taxi. Koh Ngiap Yong was 42 years old when he died.
When Koh did not return that evening or the next day’s morning, Koh’s family lodged a missing person report with the police. Coincidentally, on the morning of 9 August 2000, at Chestnut Avenue, when three young boys were cycling to school along that same road, one of the students accidentally discovered Koh’s corpse in the forest. This prompted the police to rush to the scene after a report was made.
Koh’s murder was the second case of a taxi driver being murdered in Singapore during the year 2000. The first happened two months before in June 2000, when Ong Huay Dee was murdered by a Thai carpenter named Khwan-On Natthaphon during a robbery bid. Khwan-On was later found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder, and he was hanged on 27 September 2002.
First-stage investigations
Upon the report, Senior Station Inspector Zainal Abidin bin Ismail arrived at the scene with his group of officers, and a search was made in the nearby area. It resulted in a handcuff key being found nearby the location where the boy found Koh’s body; the robbers accidentally dropped it before they left Koh for dead the day before. The forensic pathologist, Dr Teo Eng Swee of the Health Sciences Authority, conducted an autopsy of the victim and found that the cause of Koh’s death was due to four of the bayonet wounds found on his chest, each of which he ascertained could cause Koh’s death even if the wounds were separate.
The lack of defensive injuries on Koh made Dr Teo believe that Koh was either immobilized or unconscious when he was killed by his assailant(s). The investigations on 10 August 2000 also led to the police to trace the last location of Koh Ngiap Yong’s taxi, which was found abandoned in a carpark in Bukit Batok. Other than that, there were no other clues for the police to further investigate Koh’s death and it remained unsolved.
Fatal shooting of Jahabar Sathick
18 days later, on 26 August 2000, the police received a report that a man was shot dead by two Malay men at an overhead bridge in Jalan Kukoh. In response, a police team, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Richard Lim Beng Gee, arrived at the scene where 39-year-old Indian-born moneychanger Jahabar Sathick (also spelt Jagabar Sathik) was murdered.
A witness told police that she saw Sathick being threatened by two men armed with a gun, and after he handed over his bag, Sathick was shot twice in the head and chest by one of the two men despite his pleas for mercy. At the time of his death, Sathick, then a Singapore Permanent Resident (PR), was married to 28-year-old Janyam Begum, with whom he had three children.