By Embun Majid

ALOR SETAR, MALAYSIA: "If we cannot be together, then we should die together." Those were the words uttered by an 80-year-old man before he stabbed his 73-year-old wife to death at Kampung Kuala Sungai in Kubang Rotan here.

The man had earlier pleaded for an hour for his wife to remain married to him.

They had tied the knot last year but started staying separately two months ago after the wife asked for a divorce.

The 1pm incident shocked the small village as no one had suspected anything amiss when the 80-year-old man turned up at his wife's house yesterday.

He had previously made several trips to the house in an effort to reconcile, but she had rejected him.

The deceased was sitting in a chair outside the front door while her 30-year-old son was sitting nearby when her husband suddenly took out a knife from the folds of his sarong and plunged it into her abdomen.

She tried to run away when her husband tried to stab her a second time. Her son was able to grab the 17cm-long knife away from the man.

The woman died on the spot.

The husband tried to escape but was caught by villagers several metres away from the house and handed over to the police.

The woman's 80-year-old uncle said the couple's divorce case was pending in the Syariah Court.

"I do not know about their marital problems but my niece has been married several times before she married him last year," he said.

A neighbour, who declined to be named, said the victim, a mother of four, had been staying at the house for more than 30 years. He described her as a pleasant woman.

"There was no commotion before the incident. I was shocked when I saw her on the ground outside her house with her baju kurung soaked in blood. My wife was at her side when she died," he added.