Chao Tzee Cheng

Template:Chinese name Professor Chao Tzee Cheng (Chinese: 赵自成; pinyin: Zhào Zìchéng; 22 September 1934 in Hong Kong – 21 February 2000 in New York City) was a renowned forensic pathologist in Singapore. Chao was respected for solving several notorious crimes in Singapore, and raised Singapore's level of professionalism in the area of forensics.

Biography

Early life and education

Chao Tzee Cheng was the son of a professor in cultural studies and a school principal. Of Cantonese origin, he later migrated to Singapore with his parents and received his education at Catholic High School and Victoria Continuation School. Although offered a scholarship to read engineering in the United States, he decided to take up medicine at University of Hong Kong.

After graduating with an MBBS in Hong Kong in 1961, Chao returned to Singapore to serve as a medical officer. Chao also took a Diploma in Clinical Pathology in 1967, followed by a Diploma of Pathology in 1968 and a Diploma of Medical Jurisprudence in 1968.

However, a car accident in West Malaysia left him with a weakened right arm and dashed his hopes of a career in surgery. Unfazed, Professor Chao turned to a career in pathology. By 1968, Chao qualified as a pathologist, obtaining his specialised skills from the Royal London Hospital, Medical College, currently under the Queen Mary, University of London.

Chao married Joyce Wong Yoke Choy in 1963. They had a son Dr Alexandre Chao, who succumbed to SARS in 2003.

Career

Upon his return to Singapore, Chao was appointed the forensic pathologist at the Department of Pathology in the Ministry of Health. Almost immediately, Chao was involved in his first case as a pathologist. He was invited to be an expert witness in the murder case of Koh Liang Chuen in 1969. The notoriety of this case raised Chao's standing as a forensic expert in the region. His forensic expertise and duties extended beyond Singapore to countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong and even certain states of West Africa.

In his career, Chao performed over 25,000 autopsies and was the authoritative expert witness in many unsolved murder cases worldwide. His forensic capability was demonstrated in the investigation of mass disasters such as the Spyros blast, the Singapore Cable Car tragedy, the Hotel New World disaster and the SilkAir Flight 185 tragedy. He also helped solve notorious crimes in the annals of Singapore criminal law, such as the Adrian Lim cult murders, the Scripps Body Parts murders, the Bulgarian murder and the Flor Contemplacion case. He was nicknamed the "Justice of Murder" by his associates for his uncanny ability to solve murder cases.

Despite the political sensitivities of several of his cases, Professor Chao remained objective and presented the facts as he knew them. He was also known to stand for justice, no matter which side of the fence it stood on. For example, in 1975, he testified as an expert witness for the defence at the Kuala Lumpur High Court trial of Hugh Ashley Johnston for the murder of his wife. In the end, a six-to-one jury verdict held that Johnston had no intention to kill his wife.

Chao served in various capacities, including the Master of the Singapore Academy of Medicine (1992–1995), and President of the Singapore Society of Pathology (1987–1990). He also founded the Medico-Legal Society, and served as its President from 1985 until his death in 2000.

In 1999, Chao co-authored a book with Audrey Perera entitled Murder Is My Business, which documented some of his better-known cases.

Death

Chao died in his sleep on a visit to his sister in New York on 21 February 2000. At the time of his death, Chao was holding posts in the Institute of Science and Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Health, National University of Singapore and Singapore General Hospital in Singapore. In memory of him, the National University of Singapore has set up the Chao Tzee Cheng Professorship in Pathology and Forensic Science.

Honours

For his services to Singapore, Chao was awarded the Public Administration Silver Medal in 1975, Gold Medal in 1979 and the Meritorious Medal in 1995.

List of cases solved by Professor Chao

The case of Mimi Wong

On 6 January 1970, 31-year-old dance hostess Mimi Wong Weng Siu (黄婉秀) and her 37-year-old ex-husband and sweeper Sim Woh Kum (冼松锦) murdered 33-year-old Ayako Watanabe, who was the wife of Wong's Japanese lover Hiroshi Watanabe. The murder was witnessed by the Watanabes's 9-year-old eldest daughter Chieko (Chieko would later become the prosecution's main witness against the couple), who came together with her mother and two siblings to Singapore to visit her father. Hiroshi, an engineer, who had an affair with Wong for 3 years and gotten disapproval from his wife regarding the issue, wanted to end the affair with Wong, who was not wiling to. Filled wth jealousy, Wong then asked for help from Sim, with whom she bore two sons, to help her in the murder. At the trial, both Wong and Sim (who initially admitted to his participation in the killing) pointed fingers at one another, with Wong even putting up a defence of diminished responsibility, with her psychiatrist Dr. Wong Yip Chong claiming that she caught the Japanese encephalitis virus from Hiroshi Watanabe and thus suffered from a viral brain infection at the time of the killing. However, she was found to be not suffering from any diminished responsibility by the prosecution's psychiatric expert. After a trial lasting 26 days, on 7 December 1970, both Mimi Wong and Sim Woh Kum were found guilty of murder and condemned to hang for murdering Ayako Watanabe. Their subsequent appeals against the sentence and pleas for presidential clemency were later rejected. On the morning of 27 July 1973, the couple were executed in Changi Prison. Mimi Wong was the first woman to be sentenced to death for murder in Singapore.

1972 Pulau Ubin Murder

On the night of 22 April 1972 at Pulau Ubin, 25-year-old Harun bin Ripin (also named Harun bin Ariffin in some newspaper reports) and 19-year-old Mohamed Yasin bin Hussein (also named Mohamed Yasin bin Hussin in some sources) barged into the home of 58-year-old Poon Sai Imm and robbed her. During the robbery, when Harun went around the house to look for valuables to steal, Yasin was restraining the victim and tried to rape her. While he was trying to rape her, Yasin sat on Poon's chest, which led to fractures on her ribs, and these fractures led to Poon's death. The two men proceeded to dispose the body into the sea before returning to the mainland, but the body was unexpectedly fished out from the sea by a fisherman the following morning. 9 months later, when he was arrested for another crime, Harun surprised his interrogators by confessing to them about his involvement in the robbery. This confession led to Yasin's arrest, and the two men were charged with the murder of Poon Sai Imm. At the end of their trial on 15 March 1974, Harun was found guilty of robbery by night and sentenced to 12 years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane, while Yasin was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Although Yasin's appeal against his sentence was rejected by the Court of Appeal in November 1974, his appeal to the Privy Council in London was accepted and he was sentenced to 2 years' jail for committing a rash/negligient act not amounting to culpable homicide. However, Yasin was brought back to court again and promptly charged with rape. At the trial on 11 May 1977, Yasin denied raping the elderly woman despite the forensic evidence presented by the prosecution and Harun's testimony against him. At the end of the trial on 12 May 1977, Yasin was found guilty of attempted rape and he was sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment.

Murder of policeman Lee Kim Lai

On 25 April 1978, 18-year-old police national serviceman Lee Kim Lai was abducted by three men from his sentry post at Mount Vernon and forced into a taxi. They killed him for his service revolver and also killed the taxi driver Chew Theng Hin. Just on the same night when the policeman was murdered, a police officer named Siew Man Seng had seen two of these abductors behaving suspiciously around the area where the trio abandoned the taxi; deciding not to return home, he went out of his car and gave chase to the two men, managing to arrest 20-year-old Ong Hwee Kuan (the other man was 20-year-old Yeo Ching Boon) and bring him back for questioning. At the same time of Ong's arrest, Lee's body was found inside the abandoned taxi, and there were 15 stab wounds on his body. Later on, the next day, the corpse of 60-year-old Chew was also found in a drain, further linking Ong to the double murder. Yeo was later arrested in his flat and the revolver was recovered, together with some bullets. The third accomplice of the crime, 20-year-old Ong Chin Hock, surrendered himself soon after. The three men were eventually convicted of murder on 23 May 1979, and sentenced to death. They were hanged on 24 February 1984.

The death of Kalingam Mariappan

On 20 September 1981, 22-year-old lorry driver Ramu Annadavascan and his 16-year-old friend and news vendor Rathakrishnan Ramasamy assaulted 45-year-old boilerman Kalingam Mariappan with a rake. The assault ensued from an argument between both Ramu and Kalingam, and this led to Ramu stopping his lorry at East Coast Park to assault Kalingam together with Rathakrishnan. The two men each took turns to inflict a blow on Kalingam with the rake; the second blow, which was inflicted by Rathakrishnan, was revealed to be fatal according to autopsy reports presented at the trial. As a result of his injuries, Kalingam lost consciousness and fell onto the grass. Afterwards, the two then proceeded to pour petrol onto him, and set fire on him, causing Kalingam to be burned to death. Both were later found guilty of murder in July 1984; Ramu was condemned to death and he headed to the gallows on 19 September 1986, while Rathakrishnan, who was under the age of 18 when he committed the murder, was spared the gallows and detained indefinitely at the President's pleasure. After serving nearly 20 years in prison, Rathakrishnan was released in September 2001.

Andrew Road triple murders

On 23 July 1983, Sek Kim Wah, a 19-year-old conscript, broke into the home of businessman Robert Tay Bak Hong at Andrew Road on 23 July with the aid of his accomplice, 19-year-old Malaysian Nyu Kok Meng. They were armed with a rifle Sek had stolen from Nee Soon camp. All five victims: Tay, his wife, their Filipino maid, Tay's daughter and her tutor were confined to a bedroom. They proceeded to rob Tay's family of their jewellery and cash out money from their bank accounts. While Nyu was guarding the victims, Sek decided to murder all five victims by escorting them one-by-one out of the bedroom in a bid to erase witnesses. Sek proceeded to struck Tay and his wife with a chair and strangled them. Sek also strangled their maid. Nyu discovered Sek's murder intentions only when he caught him in the act in another room. Fearing that Tay's daughter and her tutor would be next, Nyu carried the rifle with him and locked the bedroom door upon dashing in. When Sek's repeated requests to open the door was denied by Nyu, Sek immediately fled. Nyu then released Tay's daughter and her tutor. Nyu fled to Malaysia before he surrendered and was extradited to Singapore.

Sek was arrested at his sister's home on 29 July, where he attempted suicide when police were closing in on him. Nyu was acquitted of murder, but charged with armed robbery and sentenced to life imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane. Prior to the Andrew Rd triple murders, Sek had also murdered two other people in Marine Parade by strangling them before disposing their bodies near Seletar Reservoir on 30 June. Sek was found guilty of murder and eventually, he was hanged on 9 December 1988 for the murder of all five victims.

1983 Ang Mo Kio triple murder

Known as the Ang Mo Kio triple murder, in a flat where he rented a room, 30-year-old Michael Tan Teow, together with his 26-year-old friend Lim Beng Hai, robbed and murdered Tan's 28-year-old landlady Soh Lee Lee and her two children – 3-year-old Jeremy Yeong and 2-year-old Joyce Yeong. The two men, who were drug addicts, tried to pin the blame on one another for the killings, but nevertheless, both men were convicted of murder and sentenced to death on 10 April 1985. Their subsequent appeals against the death sentence were dismissed. Tan later committed suicide by consuming an overdose of sleeping pills in May 1990, while Lim was eventually hanged on 5 October 1990.

Public Prosecutor v Teo Boon Ann

On 31 October 1983, 23-year-old temple medium Teo Boon Ann had brutally murdered 66-year-old Chong Kin Meng in her home while planning to commit robbery. Police investigations led to Teo's arrest some time after the murder (with the help of the fingerprints from a wedding card found at the scene of the crime), and he was then charged with murder. At the trial, Teo denied the murder allegation, stating he was only intending to rob Mdm Chong, and when his plot was discovered, Chong, who turned aggressive and tried to attack him upon the discovery of his attempted robbery; Teo also claimed, at that point, he had to act in self-defence and unintentionally caused Chong's death while engaging in a sudden fight with the elderly woman. However, the abundance of incriminating evidence, especially the autopsy results of senior forensic pathologist Professor Chao Tzee Cheng and the diary entry of Teo's girlfriend, detailing him fruitlessly trying to convince his girlfriend to help him in the robbery and to murder the elderly woman if their plot was discovered, had led to Teo's defence of a sudden fight failing to raise a reasonable doubt over the prosecution's case. As such, Teo was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death on 4 February 1987. Teo lost his appeal against his sentence on 16 August 1988 and he was eventually hanged on 30 April 1990.

References

• "Singapore Infopedia: Professor Chao Tzee Cheng". National Library Board. Archived from the original on 2007-07-04. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
• "Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Forensic Medical Investigations of the Unforgettable Professor Chao Tzee Cheng". Law Society of Singapore. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2007-07-16.