Anthony Ler
Anthony Ler Wee Teang was a Singaporean convicted murderer who hired a youth to murder his wife, 30-year-old real-estate agent Annie Leong Wai Mun, who was in the midst of a divorce with him. Ler's motive was to become the sole owner of their flat and to gain custody of their four-year-old daughter. Ler approached five youths and offered them a reward of S$100,000 to kill Leong. A 15-year-old boy whom Ler had known for five years accepted the offer. Ler threatened and manipulated the youth to carry out the deed. After several failed attempts, the youth fatally stabbed Leong.
The boy was not named to protect his identity since he was a minor. Court documents and media instead referred to the boy as "Z". Anthony Ler was convicted of masterminding the murder, and was hanged after he lost his appeal and clemency plea. As he was too young to be executed, Z was instead detained indefinitely. He served nearly 17 years in prison before being granted clemency by president and conditionally released on 2 November 2018.
The murder case was adapted into a documentary and an episode of a true crime TV series. The memoir of Subhas Anandan, Ler's lawyer, was subsequently adapted into another true crime series and published in Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965, a collection of crime stories by The Straits Times.
Early life of Anthony Ler
Childhood, education and marriage
Anthony Ler Wee Teang, who was born sometime in 1967, was the youngest of four children. It was stated that he had an unhappy childhood, and his parents divorced when he was young. Ler, who was not close to his two brothers and one sister, completed his primary and secondary education at River Valley English School and Thomson Secondary School respectively before moving on to study in a polytechnic. However, Ler dropped out in his first year after his father refused to continue paying for his education. It was said that Ler was an average student in terms of academic performance.After completing his mandatory two-year National Service and pursuing a subsequent five-year army career, Anthony Ler established several businesses but all ended in bankruptcy and failure. At the time of his arrest, Ler was working as a graphic designer. Ler first met his wife Annie Leong Wai Mun in a church when he was 19 years old. At that time, Leong was 15 years old. They later began a relationship, which lasted for five years before their marriage in 1995. The couple's first and only child, a daughter, was born on 13 April 1997.
Deterioration of marriage and divorce proceedings
Ler was unfaithful to his wife. He had an affair with a woman named Belinda Ho Wei Lynn, who later found out that Ler was a husband and father. Later, Ler even allowed Ho into his flat to live with him and his wife and daughter. Leong subsequently found out about the affair between her husband and Ho. This affair was riddled with the financial problems racked up from Ler's failed business ventures, and ended three and a half years later. This affair became the main factor in Leong's decision to separate from him. Ler also had an affair with another woman named Marilyn Tan Su Fen, with whom he also engaged in business. This business ended in financial trouble, as did their affair.Apart from the affairs her husband engaged in, Leong had to also cope with her husband's financial difficulties by using their savings to settle his debts. She had quit her job from the bank to help her husband to set up a business, but returned to work after their daughter was born. In October 1999, Leong, together with their daughter, left her husband to live with her mother. In August 2000, Ler nearly faced bankruptcy because of a failing publishing business. As a result, he attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills and was hospitalised for this. Leong returned to help him, and for Ler, it was a sign that their marriage could be reconciled. However, that was not to be, as Leong began to file for divorce in February 2001, and was pending custody of their daughter. It was also informally agreed that Ler would visit their daughter on the weekends.
Contract killing of Annie Leong
Plotting of wife's murder
The debt-ridden Ler knew that given his precarious financial situation he would be unlikely to gain custody of his daughter, believing he did not have the ability to raise her well due to the substantial debts incurred from his failed businesses; another factor was the pending sale of their flat. Ler began to contemplate murdering his wife to gain custody of their daughter and the full ownership of his flat, intending that his debts would ultimately be paid off from the proceeds promised by the sale of the flat.First move and recruitment
Anthony Ler began in February 2001 by befriending a group of five teenage boys who had gathered outside a McDonald's restaurant in Pasir Ris. Ler acted as a mentor to them, and went on meeting them a few times. After they first met, Ler asked the boys if they dared to kill people and when one of them asked how much he was willing to pay, Ler asked them to name their price. One of the boys, a 15-year-old secondary school student whom Ler had known for five years, replied S$1 million; another boy, a 16-year-old school drop-out named Gavin Ng Jin Wei, said S$100,000; a third boy named Seah Tze Howe said S$100; the others gave unknown prices. Ler agreed to Gavin's price, and asked them to name a target. That was when Ler expressed that his target would be his wife, whom he said he hated for not allowing him to visit his daughter frequently and everything else. He said he would pay that amount to any boy who dared to do it. All the boys perceived it as a joke.In the first week of May 2001, Lee again met up with Gavin and the 15-year-old boy. Ler then once again brought up the issue of wanting his wife dead, and asked if Gavin would do it, even asking him to kill his wife by covering her mouth with one hand and slit her throat with a knife from behind. It was then Gavin realised that Ler was serious about killing Leong. Gavin was later brought to Ler's flat to practice by using a newspaper and knife, and being shown the photos of Leong and their daughter. Gavin later talked to a 14-year-old female friend, about this incident, and he decided to back out after she told him to not do the job. Gavin tried to warn his 15-year-old friend to not do the job.
Another youth, 22-year-old Seah Tze Howe, was approached by Ler to kill his wife. Like Gavin, Tze Howe also realised that Ler was serious about it when he was invited to Ler's flat one night, where he was offered $100,000 to commit the murder. Ler said he would be selling the flat and use the money from the proceeds to pay him. Tze Howe then suggested Ler to hire a professional killer to carry out the murder. Ler later told him that he could not find anyone to do it.
Similarly, the remaining two of the five youths, 19-year-old Kong Ka Cheong and 17-year-old Vickneswaran Krishnan, felt that Ler was joking and they were disturbed at Ler's constant mentioning of the issue. Vickneswaran, who is also known as Vick to his friends, told the court that, "I found it strange that he should mention the subject of killing his wife every time we met. I thought he was crazy". On the other hand, the 15-year-old, who was described as simple-minded and being gullible by Gavin, agreed with Ler's requests to kill his wife.
The first failed attempts on Annie Leong's life
The first attempt was on 10 May 2001. The youth was brought to Hougang Avenue 9 by Anthony Ler, who told him to go to Block 923, to the flat where Annie Leong lived. On the instructions of Ler, the youth wore a helmet to prevent facial identification, and armed himself with a long steak knife given to him by Ler. After seeing a woman alighting the taxi, the youth, from what he said in his police statements, asked Ler by phone about Leong's facial description. After receiving Ler's description of Leong, which roughly matched the description of the woman whom the youth seen, the boy began to make his move but he missed Leong after reaching the fourth floor. Later, the boy saw Leong coming out with her daughter to go to the playground. The 15-year-old, upon seeing the girl, could not bring himself to attack Leong in the presence of the little girl despite Ler's insistence that he do so.The second attempt was on 11 May the next day. However, the youth had second thoughts and considered backing out of the plan. Before he could even raise a finger, he placed the helmet on a parked motorcycle in a nearby carpark. Just then, a phone call from Anthony Ler came, and this compelled him into obeying Ler's orders to carry out the killing again. Once again, by the time he reached the lift lobby of the fourth floor, he missed Leong. Later, the youth saw her, together with Anthony Ler and their daughter, playing in the playground. It was then the boy realised that he did not want to murder Annie Leong.
Accomplice's reluctance
After the second failed attempt, an angry Ler refused to let the boy back out of the plan. It was then, the boy stated, Ler threatened to take his life if he did not help kill Ler's wife. Not only that, Ler even went as far as to make a threat on the lives of the boy's parents and two other siblings. For the next two days, the boy did not go visit Ler because he wanted to celebrate Mother's Day with his mother.On his visit to Anthony Ler's home on 13 May, the boy was given a Japanese samurai sword as a gift from Ler, and the boy liked it. Ler told him he wanted the boy to use the sword to kill Leong. The boy refused to do it and asked to return the weapon to Ler, who in response, told him that he would use the sword to kill him if so. Still not wanting to do the deed, after he went home with the sword, the boy then stayed out for a whole day after going on a fishing session and spent the night in his girlfriend's flat in Tampines.
The boy deliberately avoided phone calls from Ler until much later, when he answered a call and Ler told him to go to Hougang. The boy then went to Ler's flat with a steak knife given to him by Ler, and his school textbook. On arrival, they prepared for and practised the killing, with Ler telling the boy specifically where he should stab Annie Leong with the knife. After they left the flat, the final and fatal attempt began.