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Featured image adapted from NewspaperSG and NewspaperSG.
Around 60 years ago, Sunny Ang captured the attention of those in Singapore when he was suspected of murdering his own girlfriend.
On 27 Aug 1963, Ang took his girlfriend on what seemed like a harmless diving trip near the Sisters’ Islands.
However, 22-year-old Jenny Cheok Cheng Kid never surfaced.
The investigation into her disappearance quickly escalated into a murder investigation. Ang’s behavior, combined with the substantial insurance policies Cheok had left in his name, led to his arrest.
Ang was then convicted and became one of the first, if not the first, in Singapore to be executed for a murder without a body ever being found.
Prior to the high profile case, Sunny Ang Soo Suan was far from an unrecognised figure in Singapore. He was a driver in the 1961 Singaporean Grand Prix, the first one ever.
Coming from a middle-class family, Sunny Ang was described as a highly intelligent individual. However, his behavior quickly cost him many opportunities.
His recklessness, especially with regards to safety regulations, lost him the opportunity to become a commercial airline pilot.
Despite being a Grand Prix driver, his negligent driving even caused the death of a pedestrian. Just a year after the Grand Prix, Ang was also arrested for attempted burglary.
But that did not stop Jenny Cheok from being enamored by the 24-year-old man.
Unlike Ang, Cheok only had limited education — up to Primary 3. To her, he was educated and distinguished.
Source: NewspaperSG
The pair met in 1963 while Cheok worked as a waitress at the Odeon Bar and Restaurant at North Bridge Road. By August that year, she left the job.
Shortly before the fateful diving trip that led to Cheok’s disappearance, Sunny Ang bought multiple insurance policies in her name.
The payouts for those policies would go towards either Cheok’s estate or Ang’s own mother.
He had also taken Cheok to a lawyer and asked her to write a will leaving her entire estate to his mother — whom she hardly knew.
In essence, this meant that in the event of her passing, her accident coverage of around S$900,000, and the rest of her possessions, would have gone to Ang’s mother.
To make things even stranger, just a day before the diving trip, one of those insurance policies expired.
Hours before the trip, Ang went to extend the policy by a mere five days.
On 27 Aug 1963, just a few months after they met, Ang and Cheok went on diving trip together to the Sisters’ Islands.
Ang hired boatman Yusuf bin Ahmad for three hours starting at 2.30pm for S$12.
Around 30 minutes into their trip, Ang instructed Yusuf to drop anchor and drop a guide rope.
The 24-year-old had also brought some equipment along for the dive, including three air tanks, two pairs of flippers, and two knives.
Despite her lack of experience, Mr Yusuf recalled her diving in alone while Ang waited on the boat.
Around ten minutes later, she resurfaced and Ang swapped her air tank before she dove back in.
This time Cheok would not resurface.
After spotting a leak in his own air tank, Ang tugged on the guide rope multiple times and got no response from Cheok.
Following a brief search, all without Ang ever diving into the water, they returned to the island to contact police.
Authorities spent several days diving into the water to search for the missing 22-year-old woman.
However, each effort bore no results.
Source: NewspaperSG
On 5 Sept 1963, they reclassified their investigation from a missing persons case to a murder. Just over a year later on 21 Dec 1964, Ang was arrested for her murder.
His case was tried in High Court in a 13-day trial that ran from 26 April and 18 May 1965.
As the lead prosecutor noted in his opening speech, the case was unusual in that it was the first in which a person is being tried for murder despite there being no body.
To prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the murder of Cheok had indeed occurred and that Ang had been responsible, the prosecution laid out several damning circumstantial evidence.
This included Ang’s suspicious behavior — both in the insurances he purchased for Cheok prior to the trip and his nonchalance to his lover possibly drowning.
In fact, less than 24 hours after her disappearance, Ang had filed claims at three different insurance companies for the “accident”.
Source: NewspaperSG
According to the boatman Yusuf, Ang seemed to be remarkably calm for someone who may have just lost his lover.
He neither expressed a desire to dive in to search for her nor wanted to speed up the boat as they headed to shore to report the drowning to authorities.
The prosecution also pointed to the flippers found during the search that was identified as belonging to Ang’s brother and that had been used by Cheok on the day.
There were two “clean cuts” in the strap which experts say could not have been caused by coral — implying that someone had tampered with them.
On the final day of the trial, the jury unanimously found Ang guilty of the murder. He was sentenced to death.
Although he filed for an appeal, the court dismissed it saying that no miscarriage of justice had been found. He was hanged on 6 Feb 1967.
Just over a decade later in 1979, a Taiwanese film production company said they would be making a film based on the case.
They said they would keep his name out of the film out of legal precaution. It is unclear if the film was ever made.
Also read: This day 32 years ago: The failed shooting at Holland Village, and the gunman who vanished
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from NewspaperSG and NewspaperSG.