Murder of Laura Yap Fui Kheng

On 4 May 1981, 25-year-old Laura Yap Fui Kheng, an air hostess and former beauty queen who had represented Pahang in a 1977 beauty contest, was found strangled to death in the living room of her home in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. She was discovered by her mother, wearing only a shirt and underpants, with a rope tightly tied around her neck. Neighbours reported hearing loud sounds and screams from the house but did not intervene, believing it to be a family dispute; they later saw a man flee the house on a motorcycle.

An autopsy determined that Yap died from strangulation, and investigators concluded she had likely been attacked during an attempted rape, though the attempt was probably unsuccessful since her clothes remained largely intact. Police publicized a description of a suspect who was said to have scratch wounds on his face, and alerted medical institutions to report any patients matching that description.

On 7 May 1981, the Royal Malaysia Police arrested a man in Kuala Lumpur and linked him to the murder. On 12 May 1981, 21-year-old air conditioner repairman Lee Chee Wai was formally charged with murder in a magistrate's court and detained at Pudu Prison. Lee pleaded not guilty. Following preliminary hearings concluded on 9 July 1981, he was ordered to stand trial at the High Court.

Lee's trial began on 13 October 1982 before Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah and a seven-member jury, with K. Pasupathy for the defence and DPP Muhammad Shafee Abdullah for the prosecution. Evidence showed Lee had approached Yap's mother and then Yap herself under the pretext of repairing their air conditioner, gained entry to the house, and attacked Yap when her mother was away. A neighbour's son testified to seeing Lee flee the scene, and a female neighbour testified to witnessing a man strangling a woman inside the house. Forensic evidence found semen stains on Yap's clothing and bruising consistent with strangulation during a sexual assault, though she was not raped. A doctor testified to finding recent scratch wounds on Lee's body. Lee claimed at trial that Yap's death was accidental, resulting from a dispute over an extorted repair fee, but the prosecution argued the evidence showed an attempted rape followed by deliberate strangulation to silence the victim.

On 27 October 1982, the jury found Lee guilty of murder by a six-to-one majority, and Justice Dzaiddin sentenced him to death by hanging under the mandatory sentencing provisions of Section 302 of the Malaysian Penal Code. Lee appealed to the Federal Court of Malaysia, represented by lawyer Karpal Singh, but the appeal was dismissed on 21 March 1983. A subsequent petition for clemency was denied in December 1983. Lee Chee Wai was hanged in Pudu Prison on 18 January 1984, at age 24.