On 26 August 1996, at a flat in Bedok Reservoir Road, 25-year-old Jimmy Chua Hwa Soon (蔡华顺 Cài Huáshùn), an army sergeant of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), brutally slashed his 39-year-old sister-in-law Neo Lam Lye (梁南莱 Liáng Nánlái) and four-year-old nephew.
Chua was arrested five hours after the cruel attack, and he admitted to the killing, revealing that he had an affair with Neo ten years prior to the murder.
On the afternoon of 26 August 1996, several residents (including a ten-year-old schoolboy) of a HDB block located at Bedok Reservoir Road were shocked to see a man running out of one of the units, with his clothes stained in blood and had injuries on his hands.
The man, who was dressed in a military uniform, rushed down the stairs and reached a carpark, where he drove a car to leave the neighbourhood.
After the girl opened the door and allowed the officers in, they discovered her four-year-old youngest brother and their 39-year-old mother Neo Lam Lye lying on the bedroom floor with knife wounds all over their bodies.
Concluding the brother-in-law as the prime suspect, the police thus laid an ambush near Neo's flat, where the crime scene was cordoned off.
Five hours later, in the evening, the brother-in-law, 25-year-old Jimmy Chua Hwa Soon, who was an army sergeant of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), approached near the crime scene and behaved suspiciously.
[4][5] During interrogation, Chua, who was found to have injuries on his hand, confessed that he was the one responsible for Neo's alleged murder but denied slashing his nephew.
[8] Also, Chua was not the only person in his family to face criminal charges, as among his eight elder siblings, one of his sisters was jailed six years for cheating.
[11][12][13] In midst of the trial, Chua manifested deep remorse for committing the murder and sought forgiveness from his family, who got to know about his previous affair with Neo.
After the end of his duty, he went to his brother's flat at Bedok Reservoir Road to borrow money to buy a ring for his wife, since he had financial problems.
He professed his love for his wife and daughter and wanted to leave the flat to go back home and celebrate their wedding anniversary.
Chua thus obeyed the voice and used a chopper to slash and stab at the "ghost", and as a result, 39-year-old Neo Lam Lye died from the frenzied attack.
Defence psychiatrist R Nagulendran submitted a report that Chua was suffering from a psychotic disorder and psychosis of the mind that led to him hallucinating and hearing voices in his head at the time of the murder.
[23] However, the prosecution rebutted that Chua knew all along that the two "ghosts" he slashed were actually Neo and her son, and that he was not actually not under the control of supposed voices inside his mind.
They instead presented that Chua had every reason to kill Neo and her son to avoid the secret of his past affair from becoming public knowledge to his wife and family.