MELAKA • A Singaporean man suspected of killing his wife and stepson and dismembering their bodies in Melaka has pointed police to the discovery of severed heads on the roof of his house.
The decomposed and dismembered remains of the victims – a 27-year-old woman and her 11-year-old son – were first stumbled upon by a grass-cutter in bushes next to an industrial area last Thursday, The Star reported.
Police believe they had been dead for four or five days before the eight body parts – sans heads and hands – were found. The suspect had allegedly chopped up the two bodies with a machete and later discarded the parts at two locations.
Melaka police chief Mat Kassim Karim said the suspect was arrested last Friday with the cooperation of the Singapore authorities.
In a statement, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said it had received a request for assistance from the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) over a murder in Tanjung Minyak, Malaysia.
“The SPF arrested a 31-year-old man and handed him over to RMP on Oct 11… to aid in investigations. It is inappropriate to comment further as investigations by RMP are ongoing,” the statement said.
Police took the suspect to his rented two-storey house in Taman Merdeka Jaya – where blood stains had been discovered in a bedroom earlier – and also found heads on the roof, Sin Chew Daily reported.
But it remained unclear if they belonged to the mother and son.
It is understood that the Singaporean had a heated argument with his wife over family issues before he turned violent and stabbed her with a kitchen knife.
He then decapitated her with a machete, according to China Press, a Malaysian daily.
The suspect also allegedly killed the woman’s 11-year-old son, one of four children from her previous marriage, who witnessed the slaughter.
The suspect reportedly chopped off the victims’ heads and hands, and dumped the hands in a trash bin near the house. The hands were still missing yesterday.
The rest of the bodies were dismembered, packed into bags and loaded into the boot of a car for disposal.
The woman’s youngest child was said to be riding in the car when the suspect was discarding the remains.
The Singaporean yesterday appeared in a Melaka court, where the judge extended his remand by another seven days until Friday.
According to Singapore’s Chinese-language evening paper Shin Min Daily News, the suspect has been married twice, and he is said to have married the woman a year ago.
Their neighbours in Singapore told the paper the couple had lived in a rented flat in Toa Payoh Lorong 7, together with two children, a six-year-old girl, and a boy aged seven.
The suspect had worked as a food delivery man, a neighbour told the paper.