Mother accused of killing her 4-year-old child cries in court; has remand extended for further investigations

• Three murder suspects have been in remand since July 25
• Mother of four-year-old victim and a man are charged with murder and disposing of child's body
• Third suspect is charged with helping them to dispose of the body
• The girl was allegedly killed in February but body was burnt three months later

SINGAPORE — Two women and a man, who were charged last weekend over the alleged murder of a four-year-old girl, will be held in remand for another week as investigations have not been completed.

The girl’s mother, Foo Li Ping, 24, and the man, Wong Shi Xiang, 33, who is reportedly Foo’s boyfriend, face two charges each.

Both of them appeared in court on Thursday (July 30) via a video conference. Foo teared up midway through the hearing, occasionally glancing at Wong, before bursting into tears as they were led away.

They are accused of murdering the girl in an apartment at the Suites@Guillemard condominium, located in Paya Lebar, sometime in February this year.

Together with Nouvelle Chua Ruoshi, 30, they then allegedly disposed of the girl’s corpse by burning it in a metal barrel at the nearby Paya Ubi Industrial Park three months later. 

It is unclear what happened to the girl’s body during the three months, and what is Chua’s relationship with the couple.

Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao previously reported that Wong used to work in a car servicing workshop at the industrial park.

If convicted of murder, Wong and Foo face the death penalty.

Anyone convicted of disposal of a corpse to prevent the detection of an offence can be jailed up to seven years.

All three accused persons were first hauled to court on July 25 and have been in remand since then. Five days before that, the police said that they had received a report of the girl having gone missing.

Foo is represented by a team of three lawyers from Invictus Law Corporation — Mr Josephus Tan, Mr Cory Wong and Mr Marshall Lim — as well as Mr Peter Keith Fernando from Leo Fernando LLC.

Mr Fernando told the court that Foo’s cousin had asked him to represent her, while Foo’s mother had approached the other three lawyers, who were meant to act for Foo on a pro-bono basis. 

Mr Tan said that “in a situation like this”, they believe Foo will have to choose who to defend her.

Wong is represented by Mr Vinit Chhabra, while Chua is defended by Mr Thangavelu.

All three accused persons will return to court on Aug 6.

Chinese evening daily Shin Min Daily News reported that Foo and her ex-husband divorced after more than a year of marriage due to arguments over their daughter. It was reported that she wanted to raise the girl on her own, then stopped contacting her ex-husband and his family.

As for Wong, he was already facing several other charges before this murder charge, including ones related to drugs and assault. He is accused of:

• Possessing 10 tablets of nimetazepam, a hypnotic drug, on Nov 22, 2018 at a flat in Geylang 

• Possessing a 0.36g packet of MDMA, a Class A controlled drug, on that same night 

• Consuming methamphetamine and possessing drug utensils that day

• Having in his possession two samurai swords that night

• Voluntarily causing hurt to a man on Nov 24, 2018 by punching and kicking him several times in another flat in Geylang

• Consuming methamphetamine on March 8 last year