A woman, who once expressed unhappiness over her husband’s wish for a divorce, stabbed him to death in their home in front of their teenage daughter before taking her own life.
The woman was armed with knives in both hands as she mounted the deadly attack in the girl’s bedroom, fending off attempts by their distraught daughter to stop her.
The Filipino nationals cannot be named due to a court order to protect the girl’s identity.
When the tragedy unfolded in the wee hours of May 1 last year, the couple had been married for more than 10 years. The 36-year-old man arrived in Singapore to work in 2006, and his wife and daughter followed two years later.
The girl testified during the coroner’s inquiry in the State Courts that because her father often worked late, her mother would get upset over his absence at home.
In April last year, her mother told her that they were having relationship problems, and that he had asked for a separation after an argument. He insisted on a divorce later as he did not want his wife to call him every day, and wished she would be more understanding of his work schedule.
His colleagues confirmed that he wished to have a divorce, and also said that he thought of moving to Canada to meet a friend he had met on an online gaming platform.
A forensic examination of his laptop revealed that he had searched online about visas and temporary residency in Canada.
Two weeks before the incident, the woman had sat on the kitchen floor holding a knife to her wrist. Her husband and daughter managed to persuade her to put the weapon down.
On the fateful day, she sent her sister a text message telling her not to pick up her husband’s calls, adding that she was talking to him and his family about legal matters.
At about 5.30am, the teenager was awoken by her father’s screams. She said that she heard him say: “Why you lie to me?”, before he stumbled into her room with blood on his leg.
Her mother followed him, stabbing him with one knife each in her hands. When the girl tried to stop the attack, her mother shook her off.
The girl shouted that she was calling the police, but the woman replied that she could go ahead.
As the girl was speaking to the police operator, her mother managed to fend off his defences and stab him in the stomach. The woman then sat against the wall and began cutting her wrists.
The man went to sit on the couch in the living room and try to stop the bleeding, and the woman then walked to the balcony and put a leg up on the ledge.
When her daughter tried to pull her away, she repeatedly mumbled: “I love you”, then ran into the master bedroom and locked it.
As the girl went to tend to her father, she heard a thudding sound. Police officers eventually found the woman lying on the balcony of a second-storey unit of the condominium they lived in. She was pronounced dead soon after. The husband was pronounced dead in hospital about eight hours after the incident.
Just before this, she had sent a voice message to her close friend, asking her to take care of her daughter for her.
The girl stated that she did not hear what her parents were quarrelling about that day, and that she believed her mother loved her father.
