Solved case · 2008
The short answer
In September 2008, three Chinese national women — Zhang Meng, her teenage daughter Feng Jianyu, and their flatmate Yang Jie — were killed in a rented flat in Yishun, Singapore, by Zhang's boyfriend Wang Zhijian, who also attacked and seriously injured Yang's teenage daughter, who survived.
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Suggest coverage for Yishun triple murdersOn 19 September 2008, police in Yishun, Singapore, responded to a report of a woman found dead after falling from a Housing & Development Board (HDB) block. Investigation led officers to a sixth-floor flat where they found blood on the door; after forcing entry, they discovered three women — one adult and two teenagers — who had been slashed and stabbed. One teenager was found alive in a kitchen toilet and taken to hospital; two others were found dead in a bedroom. The male occupant of the flat, whose fingers were injured, was arrested at the scene.
The three deceased were identified as Zhang Meng, 41, a "peidu mama" (a mother who accompanies a child studying abroad); her 17-year-old daughter, Feng Jianyu; and Zhang's 36-year-old flatmate and fellow peidu mama, Yang Jie, who was the woman who fell to her death. The survivor was Yang's 15-year-old daughter, a classmate of Feng's. Wang Zhijian, 42, Zhang's boyfriend, was charged the day after his arrest with Zhang's murder, and on 4 October 2008 was additionally charged with the murders of Yang and Feng and with the attempted murder of Yang's daughter; the attempted murder charge was later stood down by the prosecution, which proceeded on the three murder charges.
At trial, which began 22 November 2011 in the High Court of Singapore before Justice Chan Seng Onn, Wang's own police statements described killing Zhang and Feng after an argument and also attacking Yang and her daughter. The prosecution's forensic evidence — including a crime-scene reconstruction, DNA analysis, and autopsy findings — contradicted parts of Wang's account regarding Yang's death, indicating that Wang had deliberately attacked Yang as she clung to bamboo poles outside a kitchen window, causing her fatal fall. Yang's surviving daughter, given the pseudonym "Grace" by some media, testified to the extended assault she endured, which caused serious and lasting injuries, including loss of sight in one eye.
Psychiatric experts for the defence and prosecution disagreed on whether Wang suffered diminished responsibility. On 30 November 2012, Justice Chan found Wang guilty of culpable homicide (not murder) for the deaths of Zhang and Feng, accepting diminished responsibility for those killings, but found him guilty of murder for Yang's death, sentencing him to death.
Wang appealed the murder conviction and death sentence, while the prosecution appealed the culpable homicide findings. On 28 November 2014, the Court of Appeal dismissed Wang's appeal and allowed the prosecution's appeal, finding Wang guilty of murder for all three deaths, rejecting the diminished-responsibility defence for the killings of Zhang and Feng as well as Yang.
Police discover the body of a woman who fell from a Yishun HDB block; a search leads to a flat where two women are found dead and one teenager is found alive after a stabbing attack.
Wang Zhijian is charged with the murder of Zhang Meng.
News report states Yang Jie's daughter, the survivor, is stable in hospital.
Zhang Meng and Feng Jianyu's bodies are cremated after relatives travel from China to identify them.
Wang Zhijian is additionally charged with the murders of Yang Jie and Feng Jianyu, and with attempted murder of Yang's daughter (later stood down).
Wang Zhijian's murder trial begins in the High Court of Singapore before Justice Chan Seng Onn.
Defence psychiatrist Dr Tommy Tan presents his report; Wang takes the stand and is cross-examined.
Prosecution psychiatrist Dr Kenneth Koh testifies.
Wang assaults a fellow inmate while awaiting the trial verdict.
Justice Chan Seng Onn delivers judgement: guilty of culpable homicide for Zhang and Feng's deaths, guilty of murder for Yang's death; sentenced to death.
Court of Appeal first hears Wang's appeal and the prosecution's appeal.
Appeals are reheard following a change in the bench composition.
Court of Appeal dismisses Wang's appeal and allows the prosecution's appeal, convicting him of murder for all three deaths.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
17-year-old daughter of Zhang Meng, killed by stabbing; Wang Zhijian later convicted of her murder[3]
36-year-old peidu mama and flatmate of Zhang Meng, killed after falling from the flat during an attack; Wang Zhijian convicted of her murder[3]
41-year-old peidu mama, killed by stabbing; boyfriend Wang Zhijian later convicted of her murder[3]
Boyfriend of Zhang Meng; convicted by the Court of Appeal of Singapore of murder in all three deaths and sentenced to death[3]
From the record
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SOLVEDListenYishun Industrial Park, Singapore · 1980s
In 1989, 17-year-old Malaysian schoolgirl Liang Shan Shan disappeared in Singapore after leaving school and was found dead nearly two weeks later at Yishun Industrial Park. Her school bus driver, Oh Laye Koh, was acquitted at first trial but convicted of murder in a re-trial after choosing to remain silent, and was executed in 1995.
SOLVEDListenMarsiling, Singapore · 1990s
15-year-old Pan Hui was strangled to death in a Marsiling rental flat on 20 October 2007 by her stepfather, bus driver Ong Pang Siew, following an argument. Ong was initially convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but his conviction was reduced to manslaughter on appeal due to diminished responsibility, and he was resentenced to ten years' imprisonment.
SOLVEDListenAng Mo Kio, Singapore · 2010s
On 11 January 2022, 30-year-old Isabel Elizabeth Francis, who was 15 weeks pregnant, was fatally stabbed in her Ang Mo Kio flat by her husband David Brian Chow Kwok-Hun. Chow's murder charge was later reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder due to diminished responsibility, and he was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in October 2023.
Credit: CBS News / Travis Alexander (personal photo)Editorial useSourceSOLVEDListenMesa, Arizona, United States · 2000s
Travis Alexander, 30, was stabbed, slashed, and shot to death in his Mesa, Arizona home on June 4, 2008. His ex-girlfriend, Jodi Arias, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2013 and sentenced to life without parole in 2015 after two juries deadlocked on the death penalty.
Credit: Prugna at Italian WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVEDListenVia della Pergola 7, Perugia, Italy · 2000s
British exchange student Meredith Kercher was found murdered in her Perugia flat on 2 November 2007. Rudy Guede was convicted of her sexual assault and murder in a fast-track trial. Kercher's roommate Amanda Knox and Knox's boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were separately convicted, then acquitted, reconvicted, and finally acquitted and declared innocent by Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation in 2015.
SOLVEDListenMacon, Georgia, United States · 2011
Lauren Giddings, a recent Mercer University School of Law graduate studying for the bar exam, was strangled and dismembered in Macon, Georgia, in June 2011 by her neighbor and former classmate Stephen Mark McDaniel, who pleaded guilty in 2014.
