Today 43 years ago: How an armed robber saved a 10-year-old & her tutor during the Andrew Road triple murder

‘Miss, I save you’: Repentant armed robber defends victims from serial killer in the Andrew Road triple murder

On 23 July 1983, a horrific triple murder took place at a bungalow along Andrew Road that shocked Singapore.

Two armed robbers forced their way into the house to rob its wealthy owners, armed with a rifle stolen from a military base, with one of them murdering three occupants in cold blood.

However, an unlikely ‘hero’ emerged in the gruesome case, as the other robber defended a 10-year-old girl and her tutor from his comrade, saving their lives.

Armed robbers force their way into bungalow during girl’s tuition lesson

On the Saturday morning of 23 July 1983, 10-year-old Dawn Jacinta Tay Aishan was awoken by her 45-year-old mother, Mrs Annie Tay, who told her that her tuition teacher would be coming soon.

After breakfast, Dawn went roller-skating on the car porch of her family’s bungalow on Andrew Road, near today’s Caldecott MRT station.

She noticed two men squatting next to a motorcycle two houses away, looking into a bag. The young girl assumed they were just doing some repairs.

A while later, she went back into her house, whereupon her tutor, Mdm Tang So Ha, arrived in a car at about 8.30am.

During the lesson, Dawn was about to use the toilet when she suddenly saw the two men barge in through her room’s door while shoving the Tay family’s helper, Jovita Virador.

“Where is Mr Robert Tay?” one of them demanded, asking for Dawn’s father, a wealthy retired businessman. They were armed with a knife and, shockingly, an M16 assault rifle.

Man stole M16 rifle and 17 bullets fron Nee Soon Camp during NS

Months ago, in Nov 1982, 19-year-old Sek Kim Wah had been serving his National Service (NS) at Nee Soon Camp when he smuggled out 17 bullets in his boots.

The next month, he stole an M16 rifle from the armoury, dismantled it into four parts, and hid them under a tree. Sek then retrieved the parts several days later.

On the night of 22 July 1983, Sek took 19-year-old Malaysian Nyu Kok Meng on his motorcycle to Andrew Road, where he pointed out his target for robbery.

The next day, they pretended to be repairing Sek’s motorcycle nearby until they noticed the target bungalow’s front gate being left open after Mdm Tang entered.

The two armed men held Mrs Tay, Dawn, Mdm Tang, and Ms Virador in one room. They called Mr Robert Tay over, and he was taken captive as well.

Nyu stood guard with the rifle while Sek tied their victims’ hands with a roll of raffia string.

Mrs Tay gave up the location of some jewellery, but the robbers demanded more money. Mrs Tay told them that it was all at the bank, and she was briefly untied and forced to sign a cheque for S$5,000.

Sek went to cash the cheque at the bank, leaving Nyu to watch over the five victims.

Malaysian robber promises not to harm victims

Nyu, seeing that Mdm Tang had difficulty breathing with a plastic bag they had placed over her head, removed it. He reassured them that he did not wish to hurt anyone.

Later, Sek returned in an angry mood, unsatisfied with the amount of money he had gotten. He untied Mr Tay and forced the retiree to drive him to the bank in his Mercedes to withdraw more money.

Mrs Tay pleaded with Nyu to untie her daughter, who was groaning in pain from how tightly she had been bound. Nyu untied both Mrs Tay and Dawn, but refused to release them.

He told Mrs Tay that this was the first time he had committed a robbery and once more claimed that he would not harm them. Mrs Tay had Nyu and Dawn shake hands, to “seal the promise”.

After Sek and Mr Tay returned with S$7,000, Nyu urged his partner-in-crime to end the robbery and leave, but Sek refused.

Sek covered the victims’ heads to prevent them from seeing anything and took Mr Tay to another room. He strangled the retiree with raffia string.

When that failed, he smashed Mr Tay on the head several times with a heavy wooden stool, killing him.

Sek then led Mrs Tay and the helper, Ms Virador, to the master bedroom. He violently strangled both of them to death, and also bashed Mrs Tay’s head with a wooden stool.

Everybody else in the house heard the loud “thumping” sounds of the murder.

Nyu defends two victims in bedroom during Andrew Road triple murder

Nyu went to investigate and was shocked to find three of the victims dead, yelling at Sek that the plan was only to rob them.

Realising Sek would target Dawn and Mdm Tang next, Nyu ran to their room and locked the door.

“Miss, I save you, I commit suicide,” the Malaysian told Mdm Tang before untying her. Mdm Tang and Dawn held the bathroom door shut from the outside, as Sek could enter the toilet through an adjoining entrance.

Sek arrived at the bedroom door and attempted to force his way in. He instructed Nyu to open the door so he could kill Mdm Tang and Dawn, but the Malaysian refused.

“We said earlier that we only wanted money,” Nyu told him. He aimed the rifle at the locked door where Sek was trying to enter.

Sek then entered the bathroom and knocked on the door, causing Mdm Tang to pick up a bayonet the robbers had brought so she could defend herself and Dawn.

“Hurry up, let’s go!” Sek appeared to have changed his mind to wanting to leave together instead, but Nyu didn’t buy it.

Go with your money, I am going to die.

Repentant robber gives location of killer to victim for police to catch him

A while later, Sek gave up and left the house with the loot. Nyu watched him drive off in Mr Tay’s Mercedes through the blinds.

Turning to Mdm Tang, Nyu handed her his Malaysian identity card.

He asked her to tell his parents and grandmother that he had “done wrong”, and for them to buy him a coffin and bury him next to his friend, Lau Beng Hiong, whose name he wrote down in an exercise book.

Nyu also drew a map on an envelope of the area Sek lived in and passed it to her. The 19-year-old subsequently released them and instructed them to call the police.

Mdm Tang begged Nyu not to commit suicide, as he was still young, but Nyu angrily pointed the rifle at her and demanded they leave.

The two ran out of the house hand-in-hand to seek help from their neighbour. On the way, they caught sight of the three deceased victims, lying motionless on the floor.

Back in the house, Nyu turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger twice, but nothing happened due to him not knowing how to use it.

Frustrated, he left the rifle behind in the bungalow so that Sek could not get his hands on it for more killings, including against police officers.

Nyu escaped on the motorcycle and met back up with Sek to divide the loot. The latter called him “stupid” for letting Dawn and her tutor go free. Nyu fled across the Causeway that night.

Nyu acquitted of Andrew Road triple murder, jailed for armed robbery

On 29 July, Nyu’s hand-drawn map led police to the HDB flat of Sek’s older sister, where Sek was staying.

Sek saw a red police van arriving downstairs and suddenly exclaimed that he was “sure to die” before attempting to throw himself out of the window.

His brother-in-law pulled him back, and police officers subsequently arrested him.

On 1 August, Nyu surrendered himself to Malaysian authorities out of guilt. They extradited him to Singapore two days later.

The public prosecutor initially charged Nyu with three counts of murder, but acquitted him of them after learning the details of the case. Instead, he pleaded guilty to a charge of armed robbery.

The judge stated that Nyu willingly embarked on an armed robbery with a rifle and so must have known that it might result in deaths.

However, the judge also acknowledged that Nyu was repentant upon realising Sek had killed three victims, and had willingly surrendered.

He thus sentenced Nyu to life imprisonment and six strokes of the cane on 9 July 1985.

As life imprisonment was defined as 20 years in jail before 21 Aug 1997, Nyu would have been released in July 2005 at the latest.

Sek strangled couple to death in Marine Parade a month before Andrew Road triple murder

While Nyu’s court case painted a picture of a regretful man, Sek’s trial showed the opposite.

The 19-year-old came from a broken home, was ill-behaved, and even joined a secret society at 13 years old. It was revealed after Sek’s arrest that the Andrew Road triple murder wasn’t even his first homicide.

On either 29 or 30 June, just a month prior to the Andrew Road murders, Sek used his stolen rifle to rob Lim Khee Sin and his girlfriend Ong Ah Hong in Marine Parade.

“I gave it plenty of thought and finally decided to kill them,” Sek confessed. He strangled them to death with raffia string so they could not identify him to the police.

Sek also explained that he had previously worked as a part-time gardener at the Tay family’s bungalow and at Mr Tay’s factory when he was in the Singapore Boys’ Home.

When Sek had left with Mr Tay to withdraw money, the latter suddenly recognised him. To prevent himself from being identified, he decided to kill everyone in the bungalow, including Nyu. In his confessions, he said:

I found it so thrilling that I decided to strangle them.

He chose not to use his rifle as he wanted to save his bullets for a showdown with the police, inspired by the character Rambo in the film ‘First Blood’.

Killer smiles when handed death penalty

Throughout the trial, Sek revealed not only that he took pleasure in the act of murder, but also actively took precautions and thought ahead when it came to his actions.

His lawyers attempted to prove diminished responsibility by arguing that Sek suffered from a psychopathic disorder. However, a government psychiatrist assessed Sek as rational and lacking signs of being a psychopath.

On 14 Aug 1985, the judge thus found Sek guilty of the “cruel and cold-blooded” murders and sentenced him to death, which Sek thanked him for.

“It will be thrilling to be hanged,” he said with a smile.

After a failed appeal, Sek was executed by hanging in Changi Prison on 9 Dec 1988.

His last wish, a request for his ashes to be scattered into the sea, went unfulfilled.

Also read: The cold-blooded murder of an NUS professor who was bound, strangled & robbed

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Featured image adapted from The Straits Times, The Straits Times on NewspaperSG, and The Straits Times on NewspaperSG.