Murdered woman cremated

SINGAPORE - Madam Karen Koh was cremated yesterday evening with almost 40 family members and close friends present at Mandai Crematorium.

She died of her injuries after being slashed by her husband Ken Ong, 37, on Friday morning in their Yuan Ching Road home.

As she lay badly wounded in the three-room apartment's master bedroom, Mr Ong e-mailed a 2,047-word "Final Note" to the media and others, explaining his actions. He then turned the knife on himself. Both of them died in hospital.

Yesterday, Madam Koh's father, who declined to be named, dismissed the contents of Mr Ong's e-mail as a pack of lies.

"It's all false, all false," he said in Mandarin. But he did not wish to say more. "It's all in the past now, I don't want to talk about it."

Before the crematorium service began, Madam Koh's mother, Madam Cheng Swee Wan, wailed: "She died so unjustly."

In the e-mail that Mr Ong sent, with the subject line "Jurong Murder", he described his failed marriage and accused his in-laws of treating him badly.

He also said his wife had shown him little respect and would not let him work in her family's business.

Madam Koh, 39, a Malaysian and a permanent resident in Singapore, was one of four directors of TYT Corporation, which specialises in office furniture.

Her brother Andy and sister-in-law Rachel Tan led the procession out of the crematorium hall after the service.

Both of them declined to speak to reporters.

The family went from the crematorium to a temple in Geylang where more prayers were conducted.

It is believed that Mr Ong's body remains unclaimed.

The Sunday Times visited his listed address, a one-room flat in Toa Payoh, but neighbours said an elderly man in his 70s who lived there was hospitalised a week ago and had not been back since.

On Friday morning, while their five-year-old son was believed to be in kindergarten, Mr Ong also attacked the family's Filipino maid, Ms Jasmen Jamelarin Corpuz, when she tried to intervene in his attack on Madam Koh.

The maid was seriously injured but she fled and survived. She was slashed on her shoulders, back and left upper arm.

She was still warded at the National University Hospital yesterday.

At the couple's Yuan Ching Road condominium in Jurong yesterday afternoon, a male employee of TYT Corporation asked to be let in.

He placed a single white chrysanthemum in front of the home.

Among the mourners at the crematorium yesterday was Madam Koh's young son, who was handed a clutch of white chrysanthemums.

He was carried around his mother's coffin before he placed the flowers inside it - his last goodbye.

Relationship fraught with problems from the start

When she discovered that her husband had slept with another woman on their marital bed, it was the last straw for 39-year-old Karen Koh, according to her divorce application.

She decided that it was time to end a relationship that had spanned more than a decade.

She accused 37-year-old Ken Ong of being a narcissist and a chauvinist, wasting money, refusing to work and spending his time in front of computers and the television instead.

In his reply, he said she acted like a boss instead of a wife, was selfish and stayed out late with a girlfriend, failed to give him enough of an allowance, and that her family refused to give him a job at their company.

Even from the start, the time she and him spent together seemed fraught with problems. She was from a wealthy family, and one of four directors of the family's office furniture business, TYT Corporation.

He was from a broken family.

He was her first boyfriend when they started dating 12 years ago. But they broke up after five years due to financial issues.

After their break-up, she started dating another man. She did not realise that he was married. She got pregnant, and the couple split up.

Soon after, Mr Ong got in touch with Madam Koh online. He promised to be a father to the baby.

They married in October 2008, so they could "correct the things that we did wrong", and give the child a complete family, he said in his affidavit for the divorce, which he wrote on his own because he said he could not afford a lawyer.

To take care of the newborn, Mr Ong claimed he had to stop work as a property agent making $2,000 to $3,000 a month. He wanted to work at her family's business, but she said no, he claimed.

He alleged that he was given an allowance of only $300 to $500 every month while she kept travelling. He claimed he was never able to go out to enjoy himself and had to make do with instant noodles and Coca-Cola for food, and computer games for entertainment.

He also claimed that he had said yes to a divorce after she agreed to finance his studies at the Building and Construction Authority academy, along with giving him an allowance of $1,000 a month. He claimed she broke the deal.

But she claimed he never wanted to earn a living after her child was born. When they quarrelled, she was the one to resume talking with him.

When she came home late, he would lock the door. And his request to join her family's company was turned down to avoid any misunderstanding between him and her family.

Early last year, Madam Koh said she found hair from another woman on their bed. She confronted him and he admitted that a woman had visited their flat.

Last Friday morning, Mr Ong stabbed Madam Koh in their home before turning the knife on himself. Both died of their wounds.

Dr Thomas Lee, medical director of the Resilienz Clinic, said there appeared to be a major breakdown in the marriage with deep fractures in the couple's "trust, communications and mutual respect".

He suggested that Mr Ong could have been suffering from depression. "In severe cases of depression, suicidal ideas and even homicidal ideas can develop."

Psychiatrist Munidasa Winslow, who is in private practice, said: "I think the marriage was in trouble probably from the start."

He added that couples with issues should seek counselling or talk to a third party.

This article was first published on January 1, 2015.
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