The women, Ms Wong Nyet Fah, 43, and Ms Khoo Quee Kee, 45, were not only colleagues, they were friends who had just become flatmates.

But the routine of the normal work day was tragically broken when a man Ms Wong recognised as her friend's former landlord suddenly charged into the washing area and asked Ms Khoo angrily in Teochew: 'What are you trying to do? Are you trying to be difficult?'

But Ms Khoo, or Shirley as she was known to her foodcourt colleagues, ignored him.

Then Ms Wong saw in the 60-year-old man's hand a 15cm-long knife, which he plunged into her friend's back.

As Ms Wong stood there, mute with shock, the man knifed Ms Khoo in her left arm and stomach.

He did not pause even as she crumpled to the floor.

Not a single scream came from either woman throughout the attack.

The man then coolly walked away, whipping around only to hiss at MsWong in Cantonese: 'Keep quiet. Do not make a sound.'

Trembling, Ms Wong stayed put, but ran for help once he was out of sight.

It was too late. Ms Khoo died at the scene from multiple stab wounds.

Her former landlord, now wanted for her murder, is still at large. He was last seen in a blue polo T-shirt, shorts and black shoes.

The knife was found in a rubbish bin on the sixth floor of the Woodlands mall, a floor above the foodcourt.

Since the police have not been able to locate Ms Khoo's next of kin, the task of identifying the body at the mortuary yesterday fell to Ms Wong. It proved too much for the friend, who collapsed into a chair in tears afterwards.

But she recounted the incident to reporters later after pulling herself together.

Trembling at the memory, she said: 'I was so scared I could not move.'

She said she came to know Ms Khoo only last September, when she started work at the foodcourt just a month after Ms Khoo.

They became fast friends. Ms Wong said Ms Khoo was divorced and had an eight-year-old son who lived with her older sister.

Ms Khoo did not say much else about her family, but told Ms Wong she was having trouble with her ex-landlord.

For six months, she had rented a room in his home in Yio Chu Kang where he lived with his mother.

The man even landed a job at the foodcourt through Ms Khoo, but quit soon after when he fell out with the management.

He regarded Ms Khoo as his wife, but she always denied she was in a relationship with him, said Ms Wong, adding that Ms Khoo told her he was under medication for dementia.

After several squabbles with him, Ms Khoo began looking for another place to live.

Ms Wong, who is living with her brother in Marsiling Lane, had asked the neighbours if they had a spare room for rent. She took Ms Khoo in when no suitable room was available.

The women had been sharing a room in the three-room flat for two weeks, and Ms Khoo had talked about going to the Waterloo Street temple to offer prayers.

Ms Wong said: 'She told me everything was going smoothly at my place and she wanted to go to the temple to pray.'

carolynq@sph.com.sg