Family of girl who was believed to be raped and murdered 26 years ago urges police to revisit case
Madam Ang Goon Lay and her daughter Lim Jia Hui with a photo of Shiow Rong, in front of their drink stall at Lorong 5 Toa Payoh on Jan 10, 2021.
- Lim Shiow Rong, aged seven, was believed to have been raped and murdered in 1995
- Her assailant was never found, and now her family wants the police to revisit the case
- The victim’s younger sister hopes that anyone with information will step forward
SINGAPORE — The family of a seven-year-old girl who was believed to have been raped and murdered in 1995 has come forward to ask the police to revisit the case.
The family was encouraged by the identification of two suspects in the alleged murder of 19-year-old Felicia Teo Wei Ling who had gone missing 13 years ago.
Speaking to the media on Sunday (Jan 10), Ms Lim Jia Hui, who was one year old when her sister Shiow Rong died, expressed her hope that her sibling’s case can be solved, too, given today’s technology.
The family has also called upon members of the public who have information to step forward.
ABOUT THE CASE
Shiow Rong, then a Primary 1 student at Poi Ching School, had gone missing from her parents’ drinks stall at a coffee shop in Block 75 Toa Payoh Lorong 7 at 9.30pm on June 24, 1995.
A report from The Straits Times on June 27 in 1995 quoted Shiow Rong’s mother, Madam Ang Goon Lay, as saying that her daughter had left the stall after telling her that she was going out with “her father’s friend”.
Her father was in jail for drug-related offences at the time.
The report said that Mdm Ang then found a piece of paper torn from a cigarette carton in Shiow Rong's waist pouch, which the girl had left behind at the stall.
On it was written a pager number and the single Chinese character "di", meaning younger brother.
Shiow Rong had also scrawled the date "24th June" on her bedroom wall.
The Straits Times report quoted a police spokesperson as saying that they were “working on all possible leads”.
The next morning, Shiow Rong's body was found in some bushes near a sewerage tank off Jalan Woodbridge. There were injuries on her face and blood stains on her panties.
The Straits Times report stated that Shiow Rong was believed to have been raped and suffocated to death by her assailant.
Several days after her death, the police circulated a description of a possible suspect. The family said that they were later informed by the police that they could not find the culprit and had no updates.
SUBSEQUENT FOLLOW-UPS
The family said that Ms Lim’s father visited the police after his release from prison around 1997 and 1998, but was told that the police had no evidence.
In 2014, Ms Lim’s father went to the police again following incidents involving his younger daughter: Two men had purportedly approached Ms Lim on separate occasions in 2000 and 2001, and asked her to follow them.
The family knows these two men and believes that they are suspects in Shiow Rong’s alleged murder.
The police said that they would inform the family if they managed to find evidence, and that was the last they heard from the police, Ms Lim said.
Her father died in 2016 from abdominal aortic aneurysm, a rupture of a major artery that runs through the abdomen.
Ms Lim, who is now 27 years old and works in customer service, said that her family has not approached the police to ask them to reopen her sister’s case.
They feel that it would be futile to go to the police without new evidence.
Ms Lim is appealing to the public for information.
“Maybe people have already forgotten about my sister’s case, but I hope all of you can help me,” she said.
“Those who now have some recollections, I appeal to you to please let us or the police know.”
TODAY has sent queries to the police.
