Maid in Bedok murders was inspired by movie to tie couple up

The former domestic helper who killed an elderly couple before fleeing to Indonesia was inspired by a movie, The Revenger Queen, to tie them up so she could escape.

This was according to court documents The Straits Times obtained from the Indonesian Supreme Court.

Khasanah, also known as Ana Abdul Muis in the court papers, murdered Mr Chia Ngim Fong, 79, and his wife, Madam Chin Sek Fah, 78, on June 21, 2017.

She is serving a 20-year jail sentence in her home country after a trial there for the double murder.

Khasanah managed to flee to Indonesia but was caught a week later.

Details of the killings were revealed last week in Singapore in a coroner's inquiry, but Indonesian court documents also included photos that showed the level of brutality involved.

After tying up Mr Chia, Khasanah hit him repeatedly with a wooden stool as he screamed for help.

She also stomped on Madam Chin's chest, even though the elderly woman was already restrained and on the floor.

Photos of the crime scene showed the couple crouched in a foetal position on the floor in the bedroom and bathroom, with their limbs tied up with green raffia string.

Khasanah, now 44, was born in Kebumen Regency in Central Java on Aug 10, 1976, the sixth of eight children.

She was married in 1996 and had four children with her husband. Her two sons and two daughters are now between 10 and 22 years old.

The maid started working in Malaysia in 2008 and was divorced in 2011, the same year she stopped working there.

She came to Singapore on March 3, 2017, and started working at a household four days later.

Indonesian court documents showed she was unhappy, claiming she was subjected to verbal abuse on a daily basis.

On May 6 that year, she told her employer she wanted to leave and even threatened to jump from their apartment if they disagreed. Her employer sent her back to the maid agency.

As a transfer maid, Khasanah was re-employed quickly. The Chias picked her later that month to be a helper in their flat in Bedok Reservoir Road.

UNHAPPY

Khasanah told investigators she referred to them as "uncle" and "auntie", but just a month into the job, cracks started appearing.

She was not happy working for them.

She claimed Madam Chin had scolded her at around 10am, just before the murders on June 21.

Khasanah then hatched a plan to escape. She decided she would tie up the couple, copying a scene from the movie.

It is not known if The Revenger Queen is an Indonesian film.

She first targeted the sleeping Mr Chia, pasting duct tape over his mouth before tying him up.

When the duct tape covering his mouth came loose and he started to scream, Khasanah punched him in the face.

She then picked up a wooden stool and repeatedly hit his head with it.

Realising what had happened, Madam Chin confronted Khasanah and a scuffle broke out between the pair.

The elderly woman fell onto the floor and Khasanah tied her hands and legs with raffia and anchored the strings to a towel railing in the bathroom.

When she saw Madam Chin still struggling, she stepped on her body several times while holding on to the bathroom sink.

Khasanah then left the flat with her passport and some of the couple's valuables, which included several pieces of gold jewellery, mobile phones and five watches worth at least $500 in total.

Mr Chia and Madam Chin, who were found tied up and unconscious, were pronounced dead at around 4pm that same day.

He had suffered blunt force trauma to his head, while she suffered blunt force trauma to her head and chest.

Khasanah made it to HarbourFront Centre and left for Batam by ferry later that day.

She told Indonesian investigators that she spent one night in Hotel Lai Lai Batam before travelling to Jambi in Sumatra on June 22, where she checked into Hotel Masa Kini.

She was at an Internet cafe at around 3am two days later when a gamer there overhead her talking to somebody on her mobile phone.

According to the gamer, Khasanah had said: "It was an accident that person 'passed' by my hands."

Khasanah later returned to the hotel and checked out at noon on June 24. She then moved into Namber Hotel, also in Jambi.

Police arrested her on June 28 in her hotel room.

Following her arrest, Khasanah told investigators: "I didn't intend to kill. I only wanted to return to Indonesia."

She was originally sentenced to life imprisonment in Indonesia after a trial in 2018 but had the sentence reduced on appeal.

She was not handed over to the authorities in Singapore even though her offences were committed here.

This was due to the principle of personaliteit, which requires any Indonesian arrested in the country for a crime committed overseas to be processed in Indonesia instead of being sent to the jurisdiction where the offence took place.