Marsiling double deaths: Driver, bartender had ‘affectionate relationship’ but she was engaged to someone else

SINGAPORE — After he bludgeoned her with a dumbbell, he leapt to his death from a neighbouring block of flats, leaving behind notes of apology to his family and the woman he called “Vicky”.

Six days before the double deaths in Marsiling Lane in May, Vicky – a Vietnamese whose actual name was Nguyen Thi Thu Trang – had sent 58-year-old divorcee Ang Poh Hwa a text message saying: “Dont do silly thing. Im gonna leave sooner or later. U have ur life n family. U must take care of urself”.

Court documents, however, did not show what drove Ang to kill the woman and himself.

On Monday (Nov 6), State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam ruled that there was no basis to suspect foul play in the death of Ang, whose body was found at the foot of Block 17, Marsiling Lane, in the early hours of May 18.

Ang, on the other hand, had “perpetrated the unlawful killing” of Nguyen, 31, with whom he had an “affectionate relationship”. Her bloodied body was found in his flat in Blk 16 less than two hours after he was found dead.

Police officers had managed to enter the flat using a bunch of keys found on him.

They found Nguyen on a bloodstained mattress in the bedroom with “deep crushing injuries to the head and the face”, the State Coroner said.

Forensic examinations revealed she suffered deep cuts on her forehead that extended backwards and inwards towards the middle of her head. Other injuries included bruises to her right eye and around the forehead.

Police officers found two notes written by Ang – one in English and the other in Mandarin – that he had placed beneath his mobile phone.

The English note, addressed to Nguyen, said: “Vicky sorry sorry.”

The Mandarin note read: “I have let mother, second younger brother, daughter and son down. Pay you all next life. Sorry.”

They had met on the job — Ang was a mini-bus driver who was also in charge of the drivers assigned to transport employees of Marina Bay Sands nightspot Ce La Vi Skybar home after work.

Nguyen, a divorcee and mother of one, had been a bartender there since 2012.

According to one of her colleagues, rumours of Ang wooing Nguyen and a relationship between them surfaced between 2015 and last year. They were seen going for meals together but Nguyen claimed they were merely friends.

However, messages found on Ang’s mobile phone showed that they had addressed each other as “dear”. Ang sent her messages saying “miss u” and “I love u” and had 26 images of her in his phone, noted the coroner.

The father of two was also seen picking Nguyen up in his mini-bus after he had sent all the other workers home, even though she did not live along the route he was driving.

In December last year, Nguyen got engaged to an Italian man and was to have married him last month and move abroad thereafter.

She was last seen on May 15, at around 10am, coming out from the lift with Ang on the fifth floor where he lived. She was not seen at work or contactable after that.

A neighbour had told the court that while he had not heard any “commotion of note” from Ang’s flat, he had noticed the window panels along the corridor were closed in the days before his death. They were usually open.

After the deaths in May, blood stains were reportedly found all over Ang’s unit and his neighbours said he was sometimes seen with a woman but the pair had kept to themselves.