Family of man who killed mentally ill daughter hopes to heal and move on from painful events
Since the killing happened, the neighbours of Tan Tian Chye noted that his wife and his daughter’s boyfriend have moved out of their flat from a public housing block in Bedok South (pictured).
- Tan Tian Chye killed his daughter in 2018 when she pointed a knife at him
- He was released from prison on Monday
- His family now asks for space to heal and move on from the “painful chapter”
- Neighbours sympathised with what he went through but did not know the family was under distress
SINGAPORE — The family of a 66-year-old man, who killed his mentally ill daughter in 2018 after she pointed a knife at him, is glad to have him home and hopes to move on from this “painful chapter” in their lives.
Tan Tian Chye was released from prison on Monday (Oct 12), the day he was sentenced to two years and nine months’ jail — which was backdated to his date of remand on Nov 20, 2018.
Following his release, consolations poured in from neighbours and from members of the public online after they learnt about the psychological abuse that the former private-hire car driver had to go through before he killed his 35-year-old daughter Desiree Tan Jiaping.
In a statement sent to TODAY on Wednesday through the man’s lawyers, Mr Derek Kang and Mr Ammar Lulla of Cairnhill Law, the family wrote: “It has been a challenging period for all of us.
“While we are extremely grateful for the messages of support and comfort from members of the public, we ask now for privacy and the space for us to heal as a family.
“We hope to close this painful chapter in our lives, so that we may move on and look towards the future.”
Neighbours interviewed by TODAY said that they were unaware of what Tan and his family were facing until they read details of the case in the news on Monday. The judge who delivered the sentence had encouraged Tan to continue seeking treatment for his major depressive episode and significant caregiver stress.
Residents who lived in the same public housing block as him described him as a good-natured man who would never fail to greet them and as a responsible father who worked hard driving during the morning and night peak-hour shifts.
Mr Chok, 69, who declined to give his full name and profession like other neighbours who spoke to TODAY, said: “It’s a tragedy... I was shocked to learn about it in the news.”
Ms Lynn, 40, said that she has heard about how Tan once offered helmets to a group of children after seeing them playing on their bicycles.
They could not tell that Tan had been so stressed that he was pushed to the brink of suicide by their daughter’s constant demands and scolding, which happened in the later years of her life.
Since the incident, the neighbours noted that Tan’s wife and his daughter’s boyfriend have moved out of their Bedok South flat where the killing happened. Their door was unanswered when TODAY visited on Tuesday.
Mr Ng, 64, who grew closer to Tan when they were both taxi drivers, said that he did notice his neighbour’s hair was greying quickly in the year before the daughter’s death.
“He’s a good man,” Mr Ng said. “Ask anyone who lives in this block, they’ll know who he is.”
On Facebook, one online user named Michael Han wrote: "As a father with two young daughters, I could feel his love and devotion for his daughter... But to be cornered by circumstances that converged or conspired to overwhelm a father’s love until he had to act in that way speaks of a tragedy that is beyond words, beyond punishment, and beyond imagination."
Another online user David Chew commented on TODAY's Facebook page: "I hope he finds peace and closure for this sad episode."
ABOUT THE CASE
In sentencing Tan in the High Court on Monday, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng had called it a “tragic case” and said that Tan was, by all accounts, a selfless, loving and devoted father.
In 2012, after his daughter fell at an MRT station, she was assessed to have panic attacks with agoraphobia — the fear of being in crowded public spaces — and “hypochondriacal preoccupations”.
A hypochondriac is someone who is abnormally anxious about his or her health and is fearful of getting sick.
She became increasingly dependent and demanding of her parents and boyfriend, who moved in with them, scolding them repeatedly over small matters and blamed them for not providing enough for her.
Desiree Tan pestered her parents to borrow money from their relatives so that she could buy a flat. She demanded to be named the sole beneficiary of her parents’ Central Provident Fund savings. If her parents got her food order wrong, she would tell them to return to the stall to change it.
Her parents did whatever was necessary to pacify her, with Tan even slapping his wife to appease her. Such was the mental torment that the couple even contemplated suicide.
Things took a tragic turn on Nov 19 in 2018, when she threatened to kill her father with a fork for being late to pick her up from her aunt’s house. When they got home, she pointed a knife at him.
When Tan saw her doing that, he hit her with a metal pole and strangled her with a cloth. He then called the police to report that he had killed his daughter.
Tan was later assessed to have had a major depressive episode and he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
