A 47-year-old man, who allegedly killed a 28-year-old nurse and then fled across the Causeway last month, was charged yesterday with murder.

Boh Soon Ho, a Malaysian, is accused of killing Ms Zhang Huaxiang - from Hunan, China - in a flat in Block 70 Circuit Road, some time between 12.54pm on March 21 and 8.40pm the next day.

Boh, whose occupation is not known, did not enter a plea to the capital charge, which was read out to him in Mandarin.

Wearing a white and dark blue striped polo shirt, he showed little expression as he stood in the dock and occasionally glanced around the public gallery.

The police prosecutor applied successfully for him to be remanded at the Central Police Division for further investigations.

District Judge Christopher Goh also granted permission for Boh to be taken out for investigations. He is scheduled to be in court again on April 14.

Boh was arrested by Malaysian police on Monday and handed over to Singapore police the next day.

Ms Zhang was reported by newspapers to have been found lying motionless in the rented bedroom of the third-floor flat by the landlord on March 22.

The landlord was at the unit to do a check as Boh had said he would be away on business.

During his visit, the landlord said he saw someone he thought was his male tenant apparently asleep on the bed.

He then went out for dinner, but returned later to find that the person had not moved.

Pulling back the blanket, he realised it was actually a woman, who sometimes stayed over, and that she was dead.

Neighbours said they had not heard any commotion, and that the tenant had moved in last year and that the woman was his girlfriend.

Ms Zhang had received a scholarship to study nursing in Singapore in 2009, and joined the National University Hospital in 2013.

The hospital's assistant director of nursing, Ms Usha Menon, had told The New Paper that Ms Zhang was "cheerful and conscientious", and well liked by her colleagues.

Ms Zhang's parents collected her body last Saturday, after arriving here from China. Her body was cremated on Monday, and her ashes will be scattered at sea here.

Her uncle, Mr Sun Daiquan, 48, told The New Paper that Ms Zhang would call home at least once a month, but never mentioned that she had a boyfriend. He said she was the first person from their village to get a scholarship overseas.

If found guilty of murder, Boh faces the death penalty.