Murder of Seow Kim Choo

On 7 June 2016, 59-year-old Seow Kim Choo (萧金珠 Xiāo Jīnzhū) at Telok Kurau was murdered by her 23-year-old Indonesian maid Daryati (who goes by one name), who stabbed Seow 94 times with a knife, resulting in Seow's death due to multiple wounds to her head and neck. Daryati also attacked and stabbed Seow's husband Ong Thiam Soon (王添顺 Wáng Tiānshùn; also spelt Ong Kian Soon) twice before she was restrained by Ong, and subsequently, Daryati was arrested and indicted for charges of murder and attempted murder. The motive behind Daryati killing her employer was because she wanted to get back her passport to return to Indonesia, as she was feeling homesick and missed her lesbian lover, who was working as a maid in Hong Kong.

Daryati initially faced the death penalty since her original charge was one of intentional murder (which carries the mandatory punishment of death in Singapore) before the charge was reduced to one of murder with no intention to kill, with the prosecutors deciding to not seek the death penalty. At first, Daryati pleaded guilty to the lower charge before she subsequently withdrew her plea of guilt and put up a defence of diminished responsibility in an effort to further reduce her charge to manslaughter. The defence was later rejected, and she was thus sentenced to life imprisonment after the High Court convicted her of murder a second time. Daryati lost her appeal against her conviction a year later, and she remains in prison serving her sentence since then. Provided by Wikipedia