May 13, 2011
Man jailed for 19-year-old murder
By Selina Lum
FOR 19 years, the brutal killing of a 32-year-old housewife, stabbed 26 times in her Bukit Batok flat, remained unsolved. Then in 2009, the case was re-opened; the new investigating officer interviewed her relatives - a step not taken during the initial probe in 1992 - and cracked the case.
The fingerprints of Madam Bibi Noor Jahan's brother-in-law, taken as part of the investigations. His right thumbprint was an identical match to one of four prints found at the scene.
On Friday, Vincent Teo, alias Abdul Aziz Abdullah, now 61, was jailed 10 years after he pleaded guilty to a charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Teo's wife, Madam Rokiah Sulaiman, is the sister of Madam Bibi's husband, Mr Ja'afar Suleiman. On June 25, 1992, Mr Ja'afar had come home after work to find Madam Bibi on the living room floor covered with blood.
On Friday, Teo admitted that he decided to kill Madam Bibi because he saw her as the cause of their mother-in-law's incessant complaints, crying and mumbling.
The High Court heard that their mother-in-law did not approve of Mr Ja'afar marrying Madam Bibi and often lamented that he was no longer the filial son he used to be.
All these years, Teo did not go into hiding but remained in Singapore, working and supporting his family.
His lawyer said that when he received a letter from the police asking him to go for an interview, he knew it must be related to what he had done 19 years ago.
