Lau claimed that on the day of the murder, he went to Tan's flat to ask for information on the address of a woman who owed him money.

[2][3] On 26 August 1998, 17-year-old Chen Hui Min returned from school and discovered a thin trail of blood leading to her Tampines flat.

[4][5] Dr Wee Keng Poh, a senior forensic pathologist, conducted an autopsy and found that among 70 injuries on the body, there were a total of 58 stab and slash wounds inflicted upon Tan prior to her death.

[10][11][12] On 1 November 1999, Lau Lee Peng's trial to the murder charge relating to Tan Eng Yan's death began at the High Court.

Veteran criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan represented Lau in his trial, while David Lee led the prosecution.

It was revealed that Lau, who was close friends with Tan, had been engaging in gambling and horse-betting very often, and he often borrowed money from his friends (including Tan), illegal moneylenders and loan sharks to feed his compulsive gambling habit, which led to him suffering from huge debts amounting to over thousands of dollars.

[15] According to Lau's police statements (which formed the prosecution's case), he heard from Tan on 21 August 1998 that she has Ah Poh's new address, but he forgot about it due to his urgency to attend a scheduled horse betting session.

The narration of the pre-events leading up to the murder was similar to his police statements, but regarding the event in the flat, Lau stated that before he attacked Tan in a moment of anger, Tan had berated him for losing his money and cursed at him, stating that he, as a man, should be ashamed of losing money to a woman.

They also said Lau intentionally inflicted fatal knife injuries on Tan and had a clear motive of committing robbery at her flat in order to steal her huge wealth for the sake of paying off his debts from his compulsive gambling addiction (and there was evidence which showed Lau using some of Tan's money to pay off some of his debts).

[20][21][22] On 12 November 1999, Judicial commissioner Amarjeet Singh found 47-year-old Lau Lee Peng guilty of murder and sentenced him to death.

Besides, the harm that Lau inflicted upon Tan was extremely severe and cruel, which was totally disproportionate to the degree of provocation given.

Based on witnesses' accounts, Lau was said to have no irrational behaviour and was calm throughout the post-killing days, meaning he could not have lost his head as he claimed.

Like the original trial judge, the three judges - Chao Hick Tin, Lai Kew Chai and L. P. Thean (Thean Lip Ping) - who heard the appeal agreed that Lau's defence of grave and sudden provocation should not be accepted due to the brutality of the killing being overly disproportionate to the supposed provocation given by Tan Eng Yan before her murder.

[34][35] It was reported that even up till his execution, Lau remained insistent that he did not intentionally murder Tan and refused to show remorse over his crime.

It first aired as the 12th episode of the show's first season on 18 July 2002, and Lau's former lawyer Subhas Anandan was featured in an on-screen interview relating to his client's case.

He stated that even if Lau indeed was not alone when killing Tan, it would not affect the trial verdict of death because the prosecution would argue that there was a common intention between both accused to commit the offence of murder.