Unsolved case · 1972
Also known as Murder of Chan Chee Chan
The short answer
A 22-year-old seamstress was fatally shot by an unknown gunman while walking with her sister in Queenstown, Singapore in 1972; the case remains unsolved.
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Suggest coverage for 1972 Queenstown shootingOn the afternoon of 17 September 1972, 22-year-old Malaysian seamstress Chan Chee Chan was walking along Commonwealth Avenue towards Queen's Circus in Queenstown, Singapore, with her younger sister Kim Moy, when she suddenly cried out in pain. Her sister initially believed she was suffering from a stomachache and offered her medicated oil, but Chan collapsed as blood began oozing from a wound on her left chest. She had been struck by a .22 calibre bullet fired from a distance of at least 30 feet at an angle of 30 degrees to the left, believed to have come from inside one of the nearby 16-storey Housing Board flats.
Chan was taken by ambulance to Outram Hospital (now Singapore General Hospital). Police officers attended to take her statement, but she remained unconscious and died several hours later. A .22 calibre bullet was subsequently extracted from her chest.
As part of the investigation, police seized nine rifles and one pistol from licensed gun owners in the vicinity of Queenstown and test-fired them, but none matched the fatal bullet. Six witnesses who had heard the gunshot came forward, including one with firearms experience who believed the shot had come from a rifle. Chan's family described her as living a quiet life with no known enemies. However, investigators considered a theory that her sister Kim Moy, who was walking with her at the time, may have been the intended target, and that the gunman could have been a rejected suitor or a hired killer.
A coroner's hearing into the shooting was held in March 1973. Police firearms specialist Assistant Superintendent Lee Ah Fong testified that silencers were not commercially available in Singapore at the time, but that the gunman could have fabricated one. Inspector Ng Ah Kow, the investigating officer, confirmed that firearms seized from nearby residents had been test-fired with no match found. The coroner returned an open verdict.
In the days following the shooting, Chan's sisters went into hiding and locked up their family flat in Tanglin Halt, citing the possibility that Kim Moy had been the actual target. The case was never solved and no suspect was ever charged.
In 2022, the case was featured in the fifth episode of the first season of the Chinese-language crime series Inside Crime Scene.
Chan Chee Chan is shot while walking with her sister Kim Moy along Commonwealth Avenue in Queenstown, Singapore; she is taken to Outram Hospital and dies hours later.
A coroner's hearing into the shooting is held; police testify that seized firearms did not match the fatal bullet, and the coroner returns an open verdict.
The shooting is portrayed in the fifth episode of the first season of the Chinese-language crime series Inside Crime Scene.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
22-year-old Malaysian seamstress fatally shot while walking in Queenstown, Singapore, on 17 September 1972.[3]
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SOLVEDListenTanglin Halt, Singapore · 1980s
In May 1989, two men were fatally stabbed outside a flat in Tanglin Halt, Singapore, following a dispute over a Walkman; the killer was convicted of murder in 1992 and hanged after his appeal was dismissed.
SOLVEDListenPasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, Pasir Panjang, Singapore · 2000s
An eight-year-old girl disappeared in Pasir Panjang, Singapore, in 2004; a wholesale-centre worker was convicted of her murder and executed in 2006.
UNSOLVEDListenNear Orchard Road Presbyterian Church, Singapore · 1980s
Ayakannu Marithamuthu, a 34-year-old caretaker in Singapore, disappeared on 12 December 1984 and was never found. Six family members were charged with murder in 1987 but released when prosecutors admitted the evidence was insufficient.
Credit: Fielding McGehee and Rebecca MooreCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenJonestown, Guyana · 1978
On November 18, 1978, 918 people died at the Peoples Temple's Jonestown settlement in Guyana, the nearby Port Kaituma airstrip, and a Temple building in Georgetown, in a mass murder-suicide that also killed U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and four members of his delegation.
Credit: English WikipediaEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenWestdale Mall parking lot, Cedar Rapids, Iowa · 1979
Michelle Martinko, an 18-year-old Cedar Rapids, Iowa high school senior, was stabbed to death in her family's car in a mall parking lot on December 19, 1979. The case went cold for nearly 39 years until familial DNA analysis and genealogy database matching identified Jerry Lynn Burns, who was arrested in 2018 and convicted of first-degree murder in 2020.
Credit: State of California.Public domainSourceSOLVEDListenRedondo Beach, California · 1979
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris were convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing, and murdering five teenage girls in Southern California between June and October 1979.
