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SINGAPORE: A man was arrested for the murder of a 19-year-old woman, 13 years after her mother reported her missing.
Police arrested the 35-year-old man on Tuesday (December 15) and he will be imposed the capital charge in court on Thursday afternoon.
The man is suspected of causing the death of Ms. Felicia Teo Wei Ling with an accomplice who was a friend of Ms. Teo.
The alleged accomplice is not currently in Singapore and police are trying to locate him, authorities said in a statement Thursday.
Ms. Teo, who would have been 32 years old this year, was reported missing on July 3, 2007 by her mother.
She could not be found despite extensive investigations at the time, but police said she was last seen at the home of the alleged accomplice on Marine Terrace.
The police interviewed both men, as they are believed to have last seen Ms. Teo on the floor.
However, the two men claimed that Ms. Teo had left the apartment in the early morning of June 30, 2007, of her own free will.
Nothing incriminating was found after a search of the unit and a verification of CCTV footage in the area.
As there were no facts at that time linking the two men to Ms. Teo’s disappearance, it was classified as a missing persons case and a police bulletin was issued to find her.
Police explained in their statement that unsolved missing persons reports are periodically reviewed for further clues.
The reviews did not uncover any new leads until the case was referred to the Criminal Investigation Department after the last review in July this year as part of police processes for long-unsolved missing persons cases.
New leads were found when investigators tracked down belongings believed to be in Ms. Teo’s possession when she was reported missing.
Police linked one of his belongings to the 35-year-old suspect and said they are continuing the search for Ms. Teo’s remains.
Preliminary investigations revealed that he had passed away before the report was presented in early July 2007, and that the two men had allegedly disposed of his body.
The penalty for murder is death.
