On 16 October 1990, four days after her disappearance, 30-year-old Tan Hui Ngin (陈惠银 Chén Huìyín) was found dead at a disused egg hatchery nearby her home at Punggol, and when her decomposed body was discovered, Tan was half-naked and had fractures to her skull, and showed signs of possible sexual assault before her death. Five months later, with the assistance from the Malaysian police, a suspect was finally arrested and brought back to Singapore to be charged with the brutal rape-murder of Tan. The killer, Tan's 30-year-old childhood friend Lim Lye Hock (林来福 Lín Laífú), was eventually found guilty of murdering Tan and sentenced to death on 1 December 1993.
Death of Tan Hui Ngin
On 16 October 1990, two contractors were inspecting an abandoned chicken hatchery at Punggol due to an upcoming redevelopment project. Just as they scouted the area, they discovered a half-naked decomposing female corpse inside the abandoned building; the woman laid in a pool of blood with a chair covering her head. There were a total of eleven injuries found on the victim, including skull fractures.
The police were contacted upon the men's gruesome discovery, and as they conducted their first stage investigations, the investigators did not rule out the possibility of sexual assault while they classified the death of the woman as murder. Dr Clarence Tan, the forensic pathologist, certified that the skull fractures found on the victim's head were the main cause of her death, and were likely caused by a blunt object. With the help of the woman's fingerprints, the police identified the woman as 30-year-old Tan Hui Ngin, a Singaporean who was originally reported missing three to four days before the discovery of her remains. It was speculated that Tan might have known her killer(s), since she was known to only hang out with acquaintances, and a man was also last seen driving nearby the area Tan was murdered. Tan was last seen alive at about 1.10pm when she left her house to go to her eldest brother-in-law's house to babysit his three children, and she never returned home at 7pm as she usually did, and she was speculated to have been killed between 6.30pm and 8pm on 12 October 1990.
Tan was the fifth of seven children in her family, and she had three elders sisters (one of whom died young), one elder brother and two younger brothers in her family, who all made a living as fishermen. They also lived about 300m away from where Tan was murdered. According to her elder brother and father, Tan was an obedient woman who would often sail out to sea with her father to catch fish, and additionally, after the death of her eldest sister, Tan began to take care of her sister's three children everyday after she finished fishing. Tan's youngest brother also stated that at the time of Tan's death, the Tan family were supposed to finalize their plans to move to a HDB flat at Hougang within a few days in view of the upcoming redevelopment of their kampong. Reportedly, Tan's parents were devastated at the death of their daughter and hoped that the killer can be caught, and Tan's father also went to pray at the temple in hopes that the case could be solved soon.
Arrest and murder charge
Lim's arrest in Malaysia
On 22 March 1991, about five months after the brutal murder of Tan Hui Ngin, a 30-year-old Singaporean was arrested at a farm in Batu Pahat, Johor by the Royal Malaysia Police in connection to Tan's killing, and he was handed over to the Singaporean police at the Woodlands Checkpoint. The Singapore Police Force sent a public message to show their gratitude to the Malaysian police for helping to nab the suspect.
The man, who worked as a carpenter, was also revealed to be a childhood friend of Tan, and he had apparently confessed to killing Tan due to an alleged monetary dispute between him and the murder victim. The suspect, whose name was Lim Lye Hock, was charged with murder on 23 March 1991.
Background of Lim
Lim Lye Hock, born in 1960, grew up in the same kampong as Tan Hui Ngin and they became friends from a young age. Lim gradually fell in love with Tan and they slowly formed an intimate relationship, before they broke up in 1983 and Lim later met another woman, and married her in March 1989. Still, Lim continued to meet Tan and they constantly had sex with one another. Eventually, Lim moved out of the kampong and went to live in Yishun, but he maintained contact with Tan and continued to have sex with her.