• Khasanah was arrested a week after escaping to Indonesia on a ferry
• She had struck Chia Ngim Fong repeatedly on the head with a wooden stool, and stepped on his wife’s body
• She is now serving a 20-year jail sentence in Indonesia for the murders

SINGAPORE — The state coroner on Wednesday (Sept 2) ruled the deaths of an elderly couple an “unlawful killing” at the hands of their foreign domestic worker, describing it as a “cruel and vicious attack” on the defenceless victims.

The Indonesian helper who goes by one name, Khasanah, did not like being scolded by Chin Sek Fah and was unhappy with Chin, 78, and her husband Chia Ngim Fong, 79.

She previously told Indonesian authorities that she had not intended to kill them, and had assaulted them because they had struggled.

State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam revealed these details while giving her findings on the coroner’s inquiry into the couple’s deaths.

Khasanah had fled to Batam, Indonesia on a ferry after fatally assaulting the couple in their Bedok Reservoir flat on June 21, 2017. 

She was arrested a week later by Indonesian national police and gave them an account of the events leading up to the killing. She was convicted of murder in 2018 and is serving a 20-year jail sentence in Indonesia.

Now aged about 43, she was prosecuted in Indonesia for her crimes in Singapore due to the other country’s principle of “personaliteit”. 

This means that any Indonesian arrested in Indonesia for an offence committed abroad will be dealt with there instead of being extradited.

SAW PASSPORT IN CUPBOARD

Khanasah said that on that fateful afternoon, she was tidying her employers’ son’s cupboard when she saw her passport there. 

She then decided to flee to Batam and thought of how to do so without the couple stopping her.

She told Indonesian police that she decided to tie them up and cover their mouths with duct tape.

After preparing the tape and some raffia string, she went to Chia’s room, where he was asleep.

The man, who had difficulty walking due to his old age, had just taken some medicine. Khasanah knew he would thus be drowsy and unable to resist her, State Coroner Kamala said.

However, the tape that Khasanah placed over Chia’s mouth came loose after he woke up.

When he began to scream, she turned on the television to drown out the sound, picked up a wooden stool and struck him repeatedly on the head.

Chin then pushed her from behind. Khasanah retaliated and Chin hit her head on the floor of the adjoining bathroom.

Khasanah tied her up, anchoring the raffia strings to the bathroom towel railing.

When she struggled, Khasanah stepped on her body several times while holding onto the bathroom sink till she lay motionless.

She then covered the couple’s mouths with towels and secured the towels with tape.

CALLED EMPLOYMENT AGENCY

After this, Khasanah retrieved her passport and took some valuables — about S$500 in cash, jewellery, iPhones and a laptop — before heading to the Harbourfront Cruise Centre.

She said she intended to sell the items when she needed money and did not intend to kill the couple, only having assaulted them when they struggled.

She also admitted to calling her employment agency and asking them to go over to the flat to check on her employers, as she had “made a mistake”.

The staff members then alerted the couple’s daughter, who had hired the domestic worker for her parents barely a month before.

She tried to call her parents’ home and her mother’s mobile phone to no avail, so she asked her husband to help.

He later found the couple unconscious in the flat and Khasanah missing. Chin’s wrists and ankles were tied together, while her husband’s wrists were also bound.

Their daughter returned home to find the police processing the crime scene. Later, their son also realised that some cash and valuables were missing.

On the first day of the inquiry on Tuesday, an investigation officer testified that Chia had died from blunt force trauma to the head, while Chin had died from similar injuries to her head and chest.

Khanasah was later overheard in an Indonesian internet cafe talking to someone on her mobile phone about the murder.

The Indonesian national police arrested her in Hotel Kuala Tungkal, which is in Jambi province in central Sumatra. The cash and valuables were recovered from her hotel room.

They then contacted the Singapore authorities after confirming her involvement in the deaths.

While she received a life sentence in May 2018, she appealed against it. She is now serving her reduced sentence of 20 years, which was meted out by the Jakarta High Court in August that year.

State Coroner Kamala said on Wednesday that the trial in Indonesia presented “clear and unequivocal evidence” of the killing. 

The circumstances supported the “inevitable conclusion that (Chin and Chia’s) deaths resulted from an unlawful killing perpetrated by their domestic helper”, she added.