Murder of See Sheau Fang

On the night of 26 February 2004, 18-year-old See Sheau Fang, a Form 5 student in Sijangkang, Kuala Langat, Selangor, Malaysia, was last seen by her sister boarding a white car after going out for tea with a male friend. When she did not return home, her father, See Soon Thiam, filed a missing person report, and about 500 residents joined the search. The family also received a ransom demand from an unknown caller, which they paid without her return.

Police traced the vehicle's registration to Kher Tian Hock, a 29-year-old car repairman known to See, who denied involvement when questioned. The registration plates were later found to be forged. Investigators also located and questioned the car's actual driver, Kher's younger brother Kher Then Heng, who told police that See was dead and buried under concrete in front of a friend's house. On 8 March 2004, police excavated the site in Kuala Langat and, after 14 hours of digging, recovered a decomposed female body, later confirmed through DNA testing and identification by her father to be See Sheau Fang. An autopsy found strangulation as the probable cause of death and evidence of sexual assault.

The homeowner, who was uninvolved, told police that Kher had asked to stay with a "new girlfriend" and later offered to lay new concrete on the property, which was used to conceal the body. Kher and his brother were arrested and charged with murder. Kher confessed to raping and strangling See after she rejected his sexual advances, then paying someone to bury her body in concrete. It emerged that Kher had previously been convicted in a 1999 gang-rape case and had absconded before sentencing.

On 13 March 2004, Kher escaped from a police lockup in Tanjung Sepat and remained a fugitive for more than seven years, allegedly hiding in Indonesia and other Malaysian states under a fake identity while occasionally contacting his family. With Kher at large, his brother Then Heng stood trial alone and was acquitted on 24 January 2008 by Justice Datuk Zaharah Ibrahim due to insufficient evidence linking him to the murder; prosecutors did not appeal.

Kher was rearrested on 14 October 2011 in connection with a vehicle theft in Johor, ending his time as a fugitive. He was first tried and convicted for escaping custody, then tried for murder at the Shah Alam High Court. On 13 May 2015, Justice Datuk Ghazali Cha convicted Kher of murder and sentenced him to death, rejecting his denial of involvement despite his earlier confession.

Kher's appeals to the Court of Appeal (2016) and the Federal Court (2016) were both dismissed, upholding his death sentence. Following Malaysia's 2023 reform making the death penalty discretionary rather than mandatory, Kher sought re-sentencing; on 9 July 2024, the Federal Court rejected his application and confirmed the death sentence. As of 2024, Kher remains on death row with no scheduled execution date.