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Nearly 30 years have passed since the murder of seven-year-old Lim Shiow Rong, whose body was found by police near the former Jalan Woodbridge on 25 June 1995.
Preliminary investigations led to the suspicion that she was raped and strangled to death.
Despite extensive police investigations between 1995 and 2000, her assailant has slipped through the cracks, and the unresolved case continues to echo in the shadows of time.
On 24 June 1995, Shiow Rong, a primary one student from Poi Ching School, went missing from a coffee shop in Toa Payoh Lorong 7 where her mother worked.
She was last seen at around 9.30pm.
Her mother, Mdm Ang Goon Lay, said her daughter had left the stall after telling her she was going out with “her father’s friend”, according to a report by the Straits Times (ST).
At the time of her disappearane, Shiow Rong’s 46-year-old father was receiving treatment at a drug rehabilitation centre.
“I told her not to go, but she disappeared,” recounted Mdm Ang in Mandarin.
However, Shiow Rong never returned, prompting Mdm Ang to report her disappearance to the police.
The next morning, police discovered her body abandoned in the bushes near a sewerage tank off a former road named Jalan Woodbridge.
She was found in a semi-sitting position with injuries to her face and neck, and blood stains on her panties.
Shiow Rong was dressed in a peach short-sleeved blouse and blue shorts, though her footwear was missing, reported an ST article from 1995.
Source: Crime Library Singapore on Facebook
The police believed the girl had been raped and suffocated to death.
On the night of Shiow Rong’s disappearance, she had left her waist pouch at her mother’s stall.
In it was a piece of paper with a pager number which Mdm Ang did not recognise. It also had the single Chinese character di, which means younger brother.
Additionally, the victim had reportedly scrawled the date “24th June” — the date she went missing — on her bedroom wall. Mdm Ang explained that her daughter had written it some time ago.
Days after Shiow Rong’s death, the police developed and circulated a description of a possible suspect.
Source: Wikipedia
While the police would pursue all potential leads — including the unknown pager number — Mdm Ang did all she could to bring her daughter’s killer to justice.
She would even appear in the Crimewatch TV series later that year, believing that it would help investigations.
“I just want my daughter’s murderer to be caught,” said Mdm Ang.
However, the case was eventually classified as a “culpable homicide by unknown person(s)” in August 2000.
In June 2014, Lim Shiow Rong’s father went to the police following incidents involving Shiow Rong’s sister, Lim Jia Hui.
She had allegedly been approached by two men on separate occasions in 2000 and 2001. Both men also asked her to follow them.
The family reportedly knew the men and believed they were the suspects in her older daughter’s alleged murder.
However, the police told them they would reach out if they uncovered any further evidence, but the family had not heard from them since.
The father passed away in 2016 due to an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which is the rupture of a major artery in the abdomen.
In a statement to TODAY in January 2021, the police said that it has continued to conduct regular reviews of the case.
The police have also followed up on information provided the Shiow Rong’s father in 2014.
The statement came after the younger Ms Lim filed a police report with new information from the family’s public appeal.
Source: Joseph Tan on Facebook
They had been encouraged by the identification of two suspects in the murder of 19-year-old Felicia Teo Wei Ling.
“We won’t give up on the case. We feel that the police are also playing their part in trying to solve it,” said Ms Lim to TODAY.
Ms Lim Jia Hui was only a one-year-old when the tragedy befell her sister.
“I’m happy to see the photos because, at least, I know what happened. My sister died in a horrible way. You can imagine a seven-year-old child being abused like that, what kind of pain she must have experienced,” she said.
With no reported developments, the person responsible for Lim Shiow Rong’s death remains unknown to this day.
If you have any genuine information about Lim Shiow Rong, please contact the police or Crime Library Singapore at 6293 5250.
Also read: The unsolved murder of Ramapiram Kannickaisparry: Her lover was charged, then acquitted
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Featured image adapted from Crime Library Singapore on Facebook and Wikipedia.
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