Man and woman charged with killing the woman's daughter

A 33-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman were charged yesterday with the murder of the woman's four-year-old daughter.

Wong Shi Xiang and Foo Li Ping were accused of killing Megan Khung Yu Wai at a unit at Suites @ Guillemard, a condominium in Paya Lebar, sometime in February.

Foo is Megan's biological mother, according to a police statement yesterday. The girl was believed to be an only child.

Wong and Foo - as well as another woman, Nouvelle Chua Ruoshi, 30 - have also been charged with disposing the body of the girl to hide what happened to her.

They were said to have intentionally disposed her body by transporting it to Paya Ubi Industrial Park and burning it in a metal barrel.

Court documents did not reveal details about the link between the man and the two women.

But The Sunday Times understands that Wong and Foo are a couple and Chua is their friend.

The police had earlier said that they received a report last Monday at 5.36pm that the four-year-old girl had gone missing. They established that the girl had died and identified the three suspects.

While it is unclear when Wong and Foo were arrested, it is believed that Chua was arrested last Friday.

Wong, Foo and Chua will be remanded at Central Police Division and their cases have been adjourned to Thursday.

Wong used to work in a car servicing workshop in the Ubi industrial park where the girl's body is said to have been burned, Chinese-language paper Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday.

The owner of the workshop told Wanbao that Wong worked there last year, but left not long after.

Neighbours told The Sunday Times that a couple, believed to be Foo and Wong, lived with the girl in the condo unit where she was said to have been killed.

The home is not registered under either of their names, according to Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore records.

The couple and the child moved into the condo several years ago, said neighbours who declined to be named, adding that they would hear a child playing inside the unit.

Neighbours said the police had gone door to door last Thursday and Friday to ask them when they had last seen the girl, but several said they could not recall.

News of the alleged murder also came as a shock, with some neighbours noting that many residents in the condo keep to themselves and do not socialise much with one another.

"Of course we were shocked... I didn't realise such a thing could happen," said a neighbour who lived several doors away from the couple.

Another said: "Who would have thought we'd be living next to a crime scene?"

Offenders convicted of murder with common intention face the death penalty.

Those found guilty of disposing a corpse to prevent detection of an offence with common intention can be jailed for up to seven years.