Penyiaran semula berita kejadian yang pernah gemparkan Singapura pada tahun 2022 ini sebagai ‘throwback’ atau imbas kembali untuk bacaan.
Ia bukan untuk mengaitkan atau mewujudkan prejudis terhadap sesiapa dalam mana mana kes yang berlaku di Malaysia samaada yang baru atau lama termasuk kes Zayn Rayyan yang kini mencuri perhatian ramai.
Anggaplah ini salah satu kejadian dalam himpunan arkib berita melibatkan pelbagai kes pembunuhan kanak kanak autisme.
Kejadian pada 21 Januari,2022 ini sangat tragis dan menyayat hati kerana dua kanak kanak kembar berusia 11 tahun, Aston Yap Kai Shern dan Ethan Yap E Chern dibunuh selang beberapa minit antara satu sama lain.
Pelakunya pula ialah bapa mereka sendiri,Xavier Yap Jung Houn yang berusia 48 tahun.
Puncanya…lelaki itu mendakwa hadapi tekanan jiwa tidak tahan melihat isterinya ‘menderita’ tidak dapat terima keadaan dua anak kembar mereka yang ada ciri ciri kanak kanak autisme.
Ini ditambah dengan dilema bercampur baur kebimbangan apa akan jadi pada dua anak mereka itu bila dia dan isterinya sudah tiada nanti.
Gara gara itu dia jadi pendek akal dan tenggelam punca hingga rancang dan bertindak membunuh sendiri dengan cara amat tragis dua kanak kanak itu dekat sebuah kawasan padang permainan tidak jauh dari kondo mereka.
Dia ‘mencekik’ dua anaknya itu dan kemudian menekan muka mereka dalam air parit untuk memastikan mereka mati.
Juga…kemudiannya dia cuba membunuh diri tetapi tidak berhasil.
Ini mendorongnya menelefon polis mendakwa diserang oleh seorang lelaki tidak dikenali dan minta bantuan cari dua anaknya.
Namun kejadian sebenar akhirnya terbongkar bila polis dapati keterangannya tidak meyakinkan.
Akhirnya dia buat pengakuan lakukan sendiri pembunuhan itu dan apa motifnya.
Oleh kerana pihak berkuasa dapati ia melibatkan kecelaruan saikoloji dan sebagainya….dia tidak dihukum mati tetapi cuma dihukum penjara 14 tahun.
Disebaliknya ini semua… lelaki itu mengakui dia sangat kecewa kerana berharap kena hukuman mati…untuk bolehkan dia ‘sertai’ dua anaknya yang dibunuhnya.
BACA BERITA PENUH DI LAMAN CHANNEL NEWS ASIA PADA LINK INI :
ATAU BERITA STRAITS TIMES SINGAPURA PADA LINK INI : https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/father-admits-to-strangling-twins-in-bukit-timah-and-killing-them
ATAU BACA SELURUH BERITA DI SINI :
The Dad Who Killed His Twin Sons
Investigating the crime that shook Singapore
Yap…berbaju merah…
First information report: 2 boys found dead in a canal
Jan 21, 2022. A Friday. The police receive urgent phone calls at 6.18pm and 6.22pm. A man had been attacked and needed help to find his sons.
The calls were made by 48-year-old Singaporean Xavier Yap Jung Houn, who said his 11-year-old twins, Ethan and Aston, were missing at Greenridge Crescent in Upper Bukit Timah. He later said he found them dead in the water of a nearby canal.
When lead investigator Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Tan Boon Kok was first alerted to the incident, he immediately believed there must be more than meets the eye.
“Two boys were dead,” DSP Tan told CNA in an exclusive interview. “So definitely something must have happened to them and I strongly believed at that point of time foul play was already involved. It’s not normal to have two boys being killed at the same time.”
DSP Tan knew what he was talking about.
As a force veteran of 26 years, with 22 of them in investigations, the officer in charge of the team in the Special Investigation Section (SIS) of the Criminal Investigation Department’s Major Crime Division has handled at least 10 homicide cases.
“Throughout my time in SIS I suppose I only have seen a couple (of cases involving) more than one death in one case,” said the seasoned investigator.
DSP Tan made his way to the scene, located in a park. By that time, night had fallen on Greenridge Crescent, a private estate with neat rows of sleepy houses and a playground tucked away in a corner, straddling the concrete curve of the expressway.
The playground is sparsely equipped, with two swings, a small climbing gym and a sole kiddy ride in the shape of an elephant.
But it was at this nondescript playground and adjacent fitness corner that the police initially believed the crime had occurred.
Yap told officers that someone – he didn’t know who – had assaulted him. He couldn’t describe how the person looked, as he was attacked from behind and had lost consciousness.
When he woke up, his boys were missing. He said that he found them dead in the canal.
Crime scene contamination
DSP Tan and his team faced a series of challenges in this case: Two dead boys, an unknown attacker, a canal fast filling with water, dim light and a lack of closed-circuit television footage.
The rivulets that trickle down the concrete steps in the canal can quickly swell to a torrent, and the police did not want any critical evidence to be washed away.
They sought urgent assistance for piles and piles of sandbags to be brought in and stacked up at the mouth of the canal to stop water from flowing in and contaminating the crime scene.
The sandbags were transported to the scene within an hour, and placed across the canal, which measures 3m to 4m in width.
While all that was going on, DSP Tan noticed “signs” about Yap that something was not quite right.
“There were certain things – his behaviour, his demeanour at that time – (which) seemed a bit off,” he said. “Nonetheless, we were searching for the so-called assailant.”
The police mounted an intense manhunt. At least 100 officers from various contingents, including Special Operations Command and land division resources, spread out across the area, with Gurkhas searching a small forest bordering the canal for the mystery attacker.
Alerts were sent out to taxi drivers, asking them to be on the lookout for a man aged between 30 and 40.
DSP Tan said the police had to cast their net wider than usual, because there was the element of the unknown.
“When cases are unknown, we tend to cover our crime scene investigation, widen it as much as we (can) to gather as much evidence,” he said.
Officers walked 800m into the winding canal and picked up pieces of evidence along the way – an ice pick, bits of clothing from the boys, gloves and masks.
At the 800m mark, they found a storm drain CCTV camera used by national water agency PUB. But the footage did not show any unknown attacker.
The gloves and masks turned out to be discarded debris from a nearby construction site.
Red flags
As the police systematically eliminated the unknowns, a picture began to form with a clearer view of what happened.
From the get-go, Yap was a critical and important witness in the case, said DSP Tan. But he soon became their prime suspect.
When the police first got to the scene, he was in a covered section of the canal and walked out to wave at the officers at the playground area to summon them in.
“His injuries were not very bad,” said DSP Tan. Yap had bruises to his head, on his back and some “very small” puncture wounds in his stomach.
But DSP Tan noticed that Yap also had injuries on the front of his head, despite his tale of being struck from behind.
Yap did not want to be taken to a hospital, and had to be persuaded.
“We also positioned stationed officers there to observe his demeanour,” said DSP Tan. “He was cooperative, by and large. We told him that we would be here with you, just in case you have anything to tell us. He was fine with it. Throughout the night we … (observed) him, he couldn’t sleep.”
While Yap was in hospital, being observed by both doctors and the police, investigations continued at the scene.
In their search for eyewitnesses or a possible suspect, the police went to every single house in the estate and asked residents if they had been at the park.
“By and large, there was no commotion. There was no unknown person unaccounted for,” said DSP Tan. This supported what the police were thinking – that Yap’s account of what happened did not stand up to scrutiny.
The police had been speaking to Yap all this while. He continued with his version of events that an unknown attacker was behind it all.
“We had to interview him properly,” said DSP Tan. “Upon his discharge from hospital the next evening (Saturday), we invited him back to Police Cantonment Complex for an interview.”
It was only then that Yap confessed he was the culprit.
The truth
Yap’s account, as detailed in court papers subsequently, is as follows.
He had two boys with his wife, Ms Anna Seah Puay Hiang. They hired a domestic helper to help care for the twins, who were born on Oct 14, 2010.
The couple suspected the twins had autism spectrum disorder since the boys were two. They were formally diagnosed with the disorder when they were six, as well as global developmental delay, which is when a child takes longer to reach development milestones than their peers.
Although the boys were recommended to be placed in special education schools, their mother in particular found it difficult to accept their condition.
In 2019, the boys enrolled in Primary 1 at age nine at a mainstream primary school. They were still non-verbal.
Because of their learning difficulties, they were each accompanied by their mother or their maid to classes.
As the father, Yap helped with their daily needs and became more involved in their studies, spending more time with them after they went to primary school.
He became increasingly concerned about the boys in 2019 or 2020 and was sad that his wife could not accept their condition. His concern grew in 2021, after noticing his wife’s constant anger at the boys.
He began having thoughts of killing himself and bought an ice pick for this purpose in December 2021.
The turning point came at the start of 2022, as an assessment loomed ahead which would determine if the boys were suitable to remain in their school.
Yap noticed his wife’s depression and frustration at the upcoming assessment, and felt that she had given up on their sons.
He thought that killing the boys would take away his wife’s burdens, and he also feared that the boys would be bullied or left with no one to care for them if anything happened to him or his wife.
Yap came across Greenridge Crescent playground, which was near his house, while on a walk. Noticing that the area was quiet, with a big open field and a forest nearby, he settled on this spot for his dark plan.
On Jan 21, 2022, Yap drove his sons to the playground at 4.45pm. He let the boys play for 10 minutes at the playground and the fitness corner before taking them to a field next to the canal.
From the field, Yap carried the boys one by one into the open canal. He then led them on foot about 180m into the canal, to where it was sheltered.
Yap then strangled Ethan and Aston, one after the other, before placing their faces in the water running down a narrow drain in the canal.
After this, Yap tried to kill himself with the ice pick. When this failed, he used a branch and a rock the size of his fist to strike his head.
When Yap was unable to take his own life, he came up with another plan – to pretend that he had been attacked. He believed the police would uncover the truth, and the detection of his lie would indicate his lack of remorse and result in the death penalty. And this was what he wanted.
Yap called his wife, but she did not answer. He then made the two calls to the police.
While waiting, he rearranged his sons’ bodies, sitting on the ground in the dark canal with their heads on his lap.
However, when the police did not show up in the canal, Yap went back out to the playground where the police were and called to them for help.
Several injuries were found on Yap in hospital, including bruises on his forehead and scalp, shallow cuts over his body and superficial abrasions over his elbows, knees and wrist.
DSP Tan said Yap claimed he had used a lot of force, but the puncture wounds to his stomach, caused by the ice pick, were “very small”. Yap told the police that he bought the ice pick from a shop, and the police managed to trace it back to the shop and confirmed the purchase.
On top of Yap’s confession, a swab from one of the boys’ necks came back with Yap’s DNA.
“Because the cause of death is smothering – that means strangulation – essentially there has to be physical contact,” said DSP Tan.
The police verified Yap’s story with other sources, including the forensic pathologist. On top of that, they had to establish his motive.
Yap shared his concerns and worries about his sons, as well as his suspicions that his wife was cheating on him – a suspicion he had confirmed when he was detained and awaiting charging.
“He found that it was very difficult for them, you know. To him, I think he looked at them as somebody who couldn’t take care of themselves. So his worry was what’s going to happen to them should he not be around … things like that,” said DSP Tan.
Reality hits
Up to this point, Yap had remained calm and his demeanour did not break, said DSP Tan.
He was first charged with murder on Jan 24, 2022, and only for the death of Ethan. After this, he was taken back to the scene of the crime on Jan 27 for what the police call scene reconstruction.
The press were there waiting when Yap appeared in a police van at the playground.
Dressed in lock-up attire of a red polo shirt and blue shorts, with his hands and legs secured, he kept his head down and followed DSP Tan down to the canal.
It was only after returning to the scene and being made to recount in detail what happened that Yap broke down.
In lock-up, he sobbed and told officers that he was depressed and very down, said DSP Tan.
“He was unable to continue on,” said DSP Tan. “He was crying constantly, so we had to make an assessment and sent him to Changi Medical Complex. He was warded there straight away.”
Yap was later remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric assessment, labelled a suicide risk and monitored.
His time in psychiatric assessment came back with the diagnosis of major depressive disorder of moderate severity around the time of the offences.
After this finding, the prosecution lowered the charges of murder against Yap – the second charge for Aston’s death was given to him in February 2022 – to culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The charge amendment meant that Yap no longer faced the death penalty but a maximum of life imprisonment.
He entered a guilty plea in August 2023, and his lawyers Mr Choo Si Sen, Mr Patrick Nai and Ms Choo Yean Lin submitted to the court a letter Yap had written.
In the letter, he apologised for the mayhem and trouble he had caused. He said he was “overwhelmed by sadness and hopelessness” and had “totally lost faith that my two sons would be taken care of in the future”.
He had hoped that taking his two sons with him “would end their unfair suffering” and wished for “a quick death and to be quickly served with a death sentence”.
He said this was “the most lenient punishment” to him, and would allow him to join his two sons.
When this was read out in court, Yap, who was standing in the dock, was seen with tear-filled eyes.
Despite the defence’s call for the two jail terms for the boys’ deaths to run concurrently, the judge ruled that the sentences must run consecutively to “accurately reflect the overall criminality of (Yap’s) conduct which led to the loss of two innocent lives”.
Yap was given 14 years’ jail – seven each for Ethan and Aston.
“In my view, the overall sentence which I have imposed seeks to balance the fact that a heinous and serious set of offences occurred on Jan 21, 2022 and the fact that the accused suffered from (major depressive disorder) at the time of the offences,” said Justice Vincent Hoong.
“The sentences cannot in any way compensate for the tragic loss of two innocent young lives. One hopes, however, that the accused will use this time to reflect on the irreversible harm he has caused to his family as a result of his misconceived belief that he would be easing the suffering and pain of the victims and of those around him by committing the offences.”
Flowers and offerings from members of the public seen along the canal at Greenridge Crescent.
Reflecting on how he feels, now that the case has concluded, DSP Tan said: “There’s no doubt that this case is a very sad case. We will always do our best to seek justice.
“To us, it’s a job that we have to do. No matter how hard or how difficult the job is, we recognise that somebody has to do the job so that’s why being in investigation for so many years we have to … adopt a very professional mindset,” said DSP Tan.
“It’s very important that we do our best for the job so that we can seek to uncover the truth and at the same time do it to the best of our ability. As to how I really feel – I think we, as per every case, we will try not to attach ourselves too much to the case because (or else) it will be very difficult for us.”