MS Unsolved is a series that hopes to raise awareness of cold cases in Singapore and generate new leads. If you have any information on the cases, reach out to MS News or the police.
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On the afternoon of 17 September 1972, a casual walk turned tragic when a 22-year-old Malaysian seamstress, Chan Chee Chan, was shot in the chest with a .22 calibre bullet.
The victim was strolling along Commonwealth Avenue towards Queen’s Circus with her younger sister when she suddenly collapsed.
As blood oozed out of her chest, Ms Chan was immediately attended to by a passing patrol officer before being rushed to Singapore General Hospital.
Unfortunately, she succumbed to her injuries after remaining unconscious for around 11 hours.
The Queenstown shooting was classified as a murder case by the police, though the gunman was never identified, and the motive behind the shooting remains unknown.
Ms Chan, along with her 19-year-old sister, Chan Kim Moy, was returning to their Tanglin Halt flat after shopping when the tragedy occurred.
The bullet was believed to have been fired from a distance of at least 9.144m and at an angle of 30 degrees to the left.
When the bullet entered Ms Chan’s body, it deflected off a bone and pierced her heart.
Source: NewspaperSG
Kim Moy would later tell the court she had heard a small popping sound when Ms Chan collapsed.
Initially, she thought Ms Chan suffered a stomachache, so she handed her some medicated oil.
Shortly after, she noticed blood gushing from her left chest.
Although Ms Kim tried to call out to her, she was unresponsive.
Following the tragedy, police launched a manhunt, urging witnesses who had either heard the gunshot or seen the shooting to come forward.
Six people contacted the police, saying they remembered hearing the shot at 12.30pm.
One of them, who had experience with firearms, noted they were confident the shot came from a rifle.
Several residents living in the blocks of multi-storey flats were interviewed, and 13 people in the Queenstown area were found to have licenses for .22 guns.
However, six of them had moved out of the area, so their firearms were not collected.
Source: Inside Crime Scene
Police reportedly recovered nine rifles and one pistol from the remaining licensed gun owners in the Queenstown area by 19 September 1972 for ballistic tests.
However, examinations revealed that the .22 calibre bullet that killed Chan did not match any of the firearms.
Acting Asst. Supt. Boey Hun Choot, the police force’s armament officer at the time, said the bullet could have been discharged from either a .22 rifle, a .22 pistol, or a .22 revolver.
Source: Canva, for illustrative purposes only.
“If it were discharged from a rifle, the weapon has a killing range of one mile [1.6km],” he added.
After learning about the news, Ms Chan’s family, including her 55-year-old mother, older sister, and brother, travelled from Kluang, Malaysia, to Singapore.
Her body was then collected and taken for burial in their hometown.
Source: NewspaperSG
Ms Chan’s boyfriend, who had been living in Singapore for five years, did not believe that the victim had any enemies who wanted to kill her.
“It is impossible that someone wanted to kill her, and I am sure she did not have any other boyfriend,” he said.
The man also shared that they had planned to marry within the next few years.
As investigations continued, police explored three theories.
The first suggested the shooter was a sniper, though this was deemed unlikely, as it would require a highly skilled marksman to hit a moving target from such a distance.
Another theory was that someone might have accidentally discharged a bullet while cleaning their rifle.
The final theory pointed to the shot being fired from a passing car at Queen’s Circus.
Source: Remember Singapore
While silencers were not available in Singapore at that time, Asst. Supt. Lee Ah Fong suggested that the gunman might have used his homemade silencer to carry out the murder.
Meanwhile, Ms Chan’s two sisters, who had been living with her in their Tanglin Halt flat, locked up their home and disappeared from the public eye.
It was believed that they had returned to Kluang.
Apart from fearing for their safety, the sisters had also become the subject of rumours.
There were whispers that Kim Moy was the actual target of the gunman.
Source: NewspaperSG
She had reportedly rejected the advances of a man days before the shooting.
Other rumours suggest that she could have provoked someone at work.
Hence, there were speculations that a rejected suitor or a hired hitman might have been the one who fired the shot.
However, the family later denied the speculations, emphasising that the women had no enemies in Singapore.
In 1973, the coroner returned an open verdict in court.
Decades later, the fatal shooting that claimed a life remains a mystery.
Also read: MS Unsolved: The murder of Aw Teck Boon, who was stabbed after drinking at Geylang coffeeshop
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Featured image adapted from NewspagerSG and Inside Crime Scene.