We were on a holiday in New Zealand, and when we came back to Singapore in Dec 2007, we knew we had only 4 more months till we had to vacate our previous home (sold to an en-bloc). Any delay on the eviction would have cost us penalties and we were told, prior to November, that Viz would be ready by Feb or March.
Then as we were driving home one day, we saw tons of police cars and those huge red special forces tanks outside Viz. We stopped and asked what happened. Someone told us. Our hearts sank. We were worried that the construction would be delayed and we'd be forced to move twice. Thankfully, we moved in 1st April 2008, first to collect the keys.
So here's the full unabridged version of all the newspaper reportings of the events around our sordid beginnings at Viz @ Holland, including the court cases! Oddly enough, the last report was dated in Feb 2009, and there's been no further reports on the outcome of the murder trial.
Also, note how the evidence seems (at least by CSI standards haha) circumstantial. Finally, for those unfamiliar with the laws governing domestic workers and helpers: Under the Marriage Restriction Policy, all current and former work permit holders need approval from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) before they can marry a Singapore citizen or permanent resident. If not, he or she may be barred from entering Singapore for a period of time. If a domestic helper gets pregnant, they will face immediate repatriation. Talk about objectifying manual labour.
(Reports presented in chronological order of course)
The Straits Times, December 18, 2007 Tuesday
CORPSE IN CONDO: IDENTITY UNKNOWN
THE body of a woman found dead in an unfinished condominium unit along Queensway is believed to have been in a cardboard box.
According to Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao, her naked and bloody body had been stuffed into a paper carton about 1m in length, width and height.
She was found in a third-floor unit at the uncompleted Viz@Holland condo project. It is believed she died at the scene.
The woman was fair complexioned and believed to have been in her 20s. Her ethnicity is not known. She was found when a foreign worker chanced on the box on Sunday.
The Bangladeshi saw the corpse when he lifted the lid of the closed box, a fellow worker told The Straits Times last night.
Stunned by the grisly find, he alerted his supervisors, who called the police at about 10.45am.
The police have not arrested anyone so far, in what they have classified as a murder case.
It is still not known who the woman is and no one claimed her body from the mortuary yesterday morning.
Police investigations are ongoing.
The Straits Times, February 6, 2009 Friday
Murdered maid was in love triangle; DNA evidence shows the accused had sex with her before she died
By Khushwant Singh
THE trial of a murdered maid in a tragic love triangle began yesterday at the High Court.
Ms Yulia Afriyanti, is alleged to have died at the hands of her lover in a crime of passion.
The 25-year-old was found naked, stuffed in a cardboard box in the uncompleted Viz@Holland condominium in Queensway on Dec 16, 2007.
She had been strangled.
Construction worker Kamrul Hasan Abdul Quddus, 35, a Bangladeshi national who worked at the site, is now on trial for her murder.
In court, Deputy Public Prosecutor Peter Koy said that although Kamrul denies killing the woman, there was DNA evidence that he had sex with Ms Yulia before her death. There is also proof that Kamrul told the police lies, he added.
According to the prosecution, Kamrul met Ms Yulia at a social gathering in 2005. They became intimate a year later.
In September 2007, Ms Yulia told her employers and friends that she was returning to Indonesia and would be marrying Kamrul there.
A month later, the marriage was called off. Ms Yulia confided in her employers that Kamrul was already married in Bangladesh with two children.
She then began seeing Mr Joseph Guerzon Corpuz, 25, a Filipino construction worker here. They too became intimate.
They planned to marry but she never broke up with Kamrul and on Dec 9, 2007, she told Mr Corpuz she would be marrying Kamrul in January.
Despite this, investigations revealed that Ms Yulia continued her frequent and intimate telephone conversations with Mr Corpuz.
On Dec 15, she met Kamrul while taking her employer's dog for its evening walk from a residence in Grange Road.
He then returned to his dormitory in Kaki Bukit in the eastern part of Singapore but at 11.30pm, he took a bus to his worksite.
Telephone records indicate that he made several calls to Ms Yulia around 2am on Dec 16.
Less than eight hours later, a construction worker found Ms Yulia's body in a cardboard box - measuring 1m long, 0.75m wide and 0.75m deep - on the third floor.
The punishment for murder is a death sentence.
Legal aid is provided by the state in capital cases and lawyers Ang Sin Teck and Rajan Supramaniam have been assigned to defend Kamrul.
The trial continues today.
The Straits Times, February 13, 2009 Friday
Accused helped clean up crime scene
THE trial of the Bangladeshi construction worker charged with the murder of Indonesian maid Yulia Afriyanti took another turn yesterday.
Fellow construction worker Md Avir Ramijuddinmiah said the accused, Kamrul Hasan Abdul Quddus, 35, helped clean up the blood stains from Ms Yulia only days after he is alleged to have killed her.
Testifying in the High Court yesterday, Mr Md Avir said he was about to clean some apartments at the uncompleted Viz@Holland condominium in Queensway when he discovered a large cardboard carton in a third-floor unit.
It was too heavy to be moved so he opened it. Inside he found the naked body of Ms Yulia. He ran out of the unit and called his supervisor. Police were then called in.
Two days later, Mr Md Avir's supervisor instructed him to clean the area where the body was found.
Fearful, he asked Kamrul to do it for him. Mr Md Avir said Kamrul did not want to go there alone and a colleague went with him.
It took him more than 15 minutes of hard scrubbing to clean up the bloodstains.
Police investigations revealed Kamrul had sex with Ms Yulia before her death on Dec 16, 2007, but he claims that they had made love the evening before in a park near her employer's residence in Grange Road.
He then went back to his dormitory in Kaki Bukit. There he received phone calls from Ms Yulia that her Filipino friend Joseph was forcing her to go to a hotel.
According to Kamrul, she told him that she was at the Queensway worksite but by the time he arrived, he found her dead in the carton.
He said he kept quiet about the grisly find as he could not find his supervisor.
Last week, the High Court heard that Ms Yulia was also intimate with Filipino Joseph Guerzon Corpuz, 25, also a construction worker.
Mr Corpuz has yet to testify.
The Straits Times, February 17, 2009 Tuesday
Other man in maid's life wanted her back; Witness says he kept in touch even after she left him for former lover
By Khushwant Singh
FOR a while, construction worker Joseph Guerzon Corpuz and Indonesian maid Yulia Afriyanti were very happy together.
But the last time Mr Corpuz, 29, saw Ms Yulia, 25, alive was on Dec 9, 2007, when she told him she was still deeply in love with her former boyfriend Kamrul Hasan Abdul Quddus, 35, and that they were getting married in January.
She offered to return the cellphone Mr Corpuz had given her but he declined as he wanted to keep in touch with her and try to win her over.
They did keep frequent contact and on the evening of Dec 15, she called to tell him she was going to Changi Airport with Kamrul to welcome his mother and brother.
Heartbroken, he told her to take care.
But she never made it to the airport.
Her naked body was found stuffed in a cardboard box the next day in a unit at the Viz@Holland condominium, under construction at the time.
When Mr Corpuz phoned Ms Yulia a few days later, a police officer answered, saying his former girlfriend was dead and that the police wanted to talk to him.
Kamrul, a Bangladeshi construction worker accused of murdering the Indonesian maid, claims she was dead when he found her. He had gone to meet her at his worksite as she had complained that a man he knew as Joseph was trying to force her to go to the airport and a hotel that night.
Testifying at the trial, Mr Corpuz said Ms Yulia's telephone number had been given to him in early October 2007 by a close friend known as Aunt Annabelle.
He called Ms Yulia that very day and they made plans to meet on her day off on Sunday, Oct 14. They spent the afternoon at the East Coast Park before window shopping at City Plaza. He then took her to her employer's house at Grange Heights.
She told him that she had a boyfriend and he had returned to Bangladesh.
Their relationship blossomed and he would sometimes travel from Boon Lay to meet her when she walked her employer's dog at their condominium at 8 every night. They would also meet on Sundays.
In early November, they checked into a hotel but he said 'nothing happened' as she feared getting pregnant. She told him she had had an abortion before she met him but did not name the father. The next time they went to a hotel, they had sex.
One Sunday, her cellphone rang and she asked Mr Corpuz to answer it because the call was from her ex-boyfriend. Kamrul asked who he was, and when he answered 'Yulia's boyfriend', Kamrul said he was planning to marry Ms Yulia and started swearing at Mr Corpuz. Some weeks later, Ms Yulia decided between the two men.
Mr Corpuz continues his testimony today.
About the case
MURDERED maid Yulia Afriyanti was in a tragic love triangle and alleged to have died at the hands of her Bangladeshi lover Kamrul Hasan Abdul Quddus, 35, in a crime of passion.
The 25-year-old was found strangled in a cardboard box at the uncompleted Viz@Holland condominium in Queensway on Dec16, 2007.
If convicted of murder, Kamrul will be sentenced to hang.
The Straits Times, February 27, 2009 Friday
Maid murder: Defence has case to answer
By Khushwant Singh
HE CLAIMED he was asleep in his dormitory the night his lover was murdered. But phone records showed that through the night, Bangladeshi worker Kamrul Hasan Abdul Quddus, 35, was calling and sending text messages to Ms Yulia Afriyanti.
DNA evidence also revealed that Kamrul had sex with the 25-year-old Indonesian maid within the 12 hours before she was found dead at a condominium worksite in Queensway where he worked.
The evidence was clear that he was the last person with Ms Yulia before her death and also that he had killed her, Deputy Public Prosecutor Peter Koy said in the High Court yesterday as he summed up the state's case.
Justice Kan Ting Chiu ruled that the prosecution had made enough of a case for the defence to present its side.
The judge also advised Kamrul that he could choose to testify or remain silent, but warned that a refusal to take the stand may reflect badly on his case. As the construction worker could not make up his mind, the hearing was adjourned an hour early for lunch.
But even the break did not help Kamrul come up with a decision and Justice Kan adjourned the hearing till today, warning the accused that it would be his last chance to make up his mind.
During the 15-day trial so far, Kamrul has stuck to his story that he had last seen Ms Yulia on the evening of Dec 15, 2007 near her employer's house in Grange Road, and that they had sex at a nearby park. He said he left at 9pm.
Nine hours later, Kamrul and Ms Yulia planned to meet at his worksite at the Viz@Holland condominium.
He took a taxi there and claimed he found her naked body stuffed in a cardboard box in a storeroom of a third-floor unit. He said he was so frightened that he kept mum about his grisly find.
Describing Kamrul's version as 'incredible', DPP Koy yesterday pointed out that Ms Yulia's phone and jewellery were found in his Kaki Bukit dormitory locker when he was arrested on Dec 19.
Telephone records also showed that between 1.45am and 2.10am, there were text messages between them, five missed calls from him and one successful call.
DPP Koy said this clearly showed that Kamrul had lied to the police when he said he had inadvertently taken her phone back with him when they parted at 9pm.
He also claimed the watch and jewellery in his locker were not hers but items he had bought for his wife back home.
But forensic scientists found Ms Yulia's DNA on these items. Her employer also testified that she had bought the watch and used it before giving it to her maid.
She and other witnesses had also testified that Ms Yulia told them she and Kamrul would be welcoming his mother and a younger sibling at the airport on the day she was found dead.
Tags:
