Killing of Isabel Elizabeth Francis

On the early morning of 11 January 2022, Isabel Elizabeth Francis, a 30-year-old Eurasian Singaporean who was 15 weeks pregnant with a daughter, was stabbed to death inside her family's Ang Mo Kio flat. She sustained a total of 15 stab wounds to her head, neck and torso; two wounds — one penetrating the left lung and one to the upper neck — were determined to be independently sufficient to cause death. Francis was pronounced dead at the scene. Her husband, David Brian Chow Kwok-Hun, then 33, was found alive in the flat with self-inflicted injuries and was taken to hospital.

Francis was raised Catholic in Singapore, was close to her siblings, taught catechism classes at Church of Christ the King in Ang Mo Kio, and studied mass communications at Ngee Ann Polytechnic before further studies at RMIT Singapore. She met Chow in 2014 as an intern at his family's security training company; they married in December 2019. At the time of her death she worked at Deliveroo and was a part-time law student at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

According to accounts presented in court, Chow had become convinced in December 2021, based on a flawed financial report, that his company was facing bankruptcy, and he developed severe depression, worry and sleep loss. Despite reassurance from family and colleagues, his condition worsened, and his father had arranged to take him to see a psychiatrist on the morning of 11 January 2022. In the hours before the killing, Chow decided he wanted to die by suicide but believed that killing his wife and unborn child first would spare them the "shame" of his suicide. He obtained a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Francis multiple times as she slept; she attempted to flee toward the front door but was caught and fatally stabbed further. Chow then stabbed himself and ingested tablets in unsuccessful suicide attempts before calling police and surrendering.

Chow was arrested and charged with murder on 12 January 2022, a charge that under Singapore law carried a potential death sentence. Following psychiatric evaluation, he was diagnosed with adjustment disorder that was found to have caused an abnormality of mind at the time of the killing. On 26 October 2023, at the High Court, the prosecution reduced the charge to culpable homicide not amounting to murder (manslaughter) on grounds of diminished responsibility, and Chow pleaded guilty. It was later confirmed that the company's finances had in fact been sound and the earlier report was erroneous.

The prosecution sought nine to 12 years' imprisonment, citing the vulnerability of a pregnant victim and the loss of a foetus, while the defence sought five to seven years, citing lack of premeditation and Chow's remorse. Justice Pang Khang Chau of the High Court, referencing a comparable prior manslaughter case, sentenced Chow to seven years' imprisonment, backdated to his remand date.

Francis's brother, Emanuel, later spoke publicly about his sister and the case, describing their close relationship and his difficulty in reconciling with Chow. Psychiatric commentators consulted by media noted that violent behaviour is a rare manifestation of adjustment disorder.