Killing of Megan Khung
Megan Khung Yu Wai was a four-year-old Singaporean girl who was killed by her mother Foo Li Ping and Foo's boyfriend Brian Wong Shi Xiang in February 2020. Three months after her death, Khung's body was burned to ashes by the couple, who enlisted the help of a third accomplice Nouvelle Chua Ruo Shi to assist them in disposing of the corpse.
Khung's death went unnoticed until five months later, when the Singapore Police Force received two separate police reports from Khung's maternal grandmother and biological father on 20 July 2020. The police arrested all three suspects within a week, and on 25 July 2020, both Foo and Wong were charged with murder, while Chua was charged for disposal of the girl's corpse.
In 2025, both Wong and Foo pleaded guilty to charges in relation to the homicide and abuse of Khung; Foo was sentenced to 19 years' jail while Wong was given 30 years' jail with 17 strokes of the cane. Chua is currently pending trial for helping to dispose of Khung's corpse.
Background
Birth and early life
Megan Khung Yu Wai, the first and only child of her parents Simon Khung Wei Nan and Foo Li Ping, was born in Singapore on 4 October 2015. Khung's father, who had an older brother, had gone to prison thrice from 2015 to 2019 for drug consumption. When Khung was about eighteen or nineteen months old, her parents, who were married on 12 May 2015, divorced more than a year after they were married. Before his marriage to Foo, Khung's father was formerly married with another woman and had one son before it ended with a divorce in 2012.After her parents' divorce, Khung's mother, who gained custody of the girl, began a relationship with Wong Shi Xiang, and went to live with him. Khung was cared for by her maternal grandmother, who doted on her granddaughter and shared a close relationship with her. Subsequently, Foo wanted to bring her daughter to live together with her and Wong. Khung's grandmother, who strongly disapproved of her daughter's relationship with Wong, objected to Foo bringing her granddaughter away, and Khung herself also did not want to stay with her mother. Still, Foo went ahead with the arrangement, and left with her daughter in September 2019. Afterwards, Foo cut off all contact with her mother, ex-husband and former-in-laws. The girl's father and paternal relatives had requested that they take care of the girl but had their requests rejected by Foo, who insisted on raising Khung herself.
Abuse
Between February 2019 and February 2020, Khung was physically abused by Foo and Wong.Between late February and early March 2019, Khung was caned by her mother and Wong when she urinated on the bed or sofa. The abuse was discovered when pre-school teachers and staff from Khung's kindergarten discovered the scars on her. The staff warned the couple that they would refer the case to the Ministry of Social and Family Development if the abuse persisted. Khung's mother then withdrew her from kindergarten, claiming that it did not teach her daughter Chinese.
After Khung went to live with her mother and Wong, the couple continued to physically abuse her. Regularly, Wong whipped her with a cane, slapped and punched her, and Foo often did not intervene to stop the abuse; she even joined Wong in caning the girl. Wong also taught Foo to abuse her daughter without leaving visible marks or injuries.
On 9 November 2019, Foo forced her daughter to wear her soiled diaper over her head out of anger that Khung had not told her the diaper was full. On 5 January 2020, Khung dripped her mucus on the couple while crying, and in retaliation, Foo slapped Khung, blew her own nose and wiped her mucus onto her daughter's face. Other instances of abuse and humiliation include the couple recording and parading the girl crying in public and shaving her hair. Foo had also drawn on Khung's face to punish her for playing with her cosmetics.
Between January and February 2020, the abuse escalated further with Wong inflicting crueller harm on Khung. He often used a baton to beat Khung and also dislocated her jaw, with Foo refusing to seek medical attention for Khung. During that same period, Khung was also forced to go naked in the flat, and was frequently starved except for times when she was allowed to eat depending on Wong's mood, and the couple forced Khung to sleep in a planter box.
Khung's death and disappearance
On 21 February 2020, Megan Khung was abused and murdered by Wong Shi Xiang, who scolded her to not relieve herself if he let her sleep inside the house and even punched her in the stomach. Khung was laid on the ground and later died after the couple and their friend Nouvelle Chua Ruo Shi ignored the girl and went to consume drugs. A forensic pathologist opined that the possible cause of Khung's death was blood infection from inflammation, caused by ruptures or lacerations of Megan’s internal organs. After seeing the girl remaining motionless hours later, the couple and Chua tried to resuscitate the girl with electric shocks and CPR but failed to revive her, and to avoid the exposure of the abuse and their drug use, the trio decided to not report to the police. The body of Khung was hidden in a box, with her body being wrapped in a blanket and layers of cling film, and brown tape, and the box lid was sealed with cement.On 8 May 2020, the couple and Chua gathered up a metal barrel and two boxes of charcoal. They took it to the car workshop of Wong's godfather and used them to burn the box containing Khung's corpse. They gathered up the ashes and threw them in the sea at East Coast Park.
Meanwhile, Khung's maternal grandmother, who was concerned about the loss of contact with her granddaughter and daughter, filed a missing person report with the accompaniment of a social welfare worker in January 2020, a month before Khung was murdered. Throughout the past few months before making the report, the agency kept in touch with Khung's maternal grandmother and encouraged her to continue contacting her daughter and monitor Khung's condition. On 20 July 2020, concerned for his daughter’s safety and whereabouts, Khung's father, who was just released from prison, also filed a police report to report her missing as well.
After assessing the missing person's reports by Khung's family, the police established that the girl was no longer alive. After a four-day police investigation, Foo Li Ping and her boyfriend Wong Shi Xiang were both arrested on 24 July 2020 and expected to be charged with murder, while Chua herself was arrested for helping to dispose of the body.
Criminal charges
On 25 July 2020, five days after their arrests, 33-year-old Wong Shi Xiang and 24-year-old Foo Li Ping were both charged with murder in relation to the death of four-year-old Megan Khung Yu Wai. Under the Penal Code, offenders convicted of murder would face the death penalty. The third suspect, 30-year-old Nouvelle Chua Ruo Shi, was charged with assisting the couple to dispose of the little girl's corpse. The charge of disposing of a corpse to prevent detection of an offence carried a sentence of up to seven years' imprisonment. Additionally, Wong also faced seven other unrelated charges, including drug consumption, drug possession, methamphetamine trafficking in November 2018, and possessing two “Samurai” swords. He was also charged with assaulting a man in November 2018 by hitting and kicking him several times. Wong was out on bail for these above drug and assault offences when he abused Khung and later murdered her.On 30 July 2020, Wong, Foo and Chua were all ordered to be remanded for investigations, as well as to undergo pre-trial psychiatric evaluation. Foo's family members engaged lawyers to represent Foo, and in the end, out of two defence counsels engaged by her family, Foo chose one of them, consisting of Josephus Tan and his associates Cory Wong and Marshall Lim, while the other, led by Peter Keith Fernando, was discharged. Wong engaged Vinit Chhabra to defend him.
On 3 August 2020, the remand order was extended for one week. Chua's lawyer Thangavelu objected to the further remand of his client on the grounds that her charge was not murder, but of disposal of a corpse, which do not warrant the death penalty like murder, and stating that Chua's case would be heard at the State Courts rather than the High Court, where trials for capital cases like murder were conducted. However, the objection was overruled by the district judge, who went ahead with the extension on the account that the prosecution needed more time to gather evidence to determine the roles played by each of the trio in Khung's death.
After the end of her prolonged remand order, Chua was eventually granted bail of S$50,000 on 13 August 2020, and thus released from prison with conditions to abide to, like curfew hours and wearing an electronic tag. Foo and Wong were still remanded in prison as murder suspects were not allowed to be released on bail. In September 2020, the psychiatric assessments of Wong and Foo were completed, but they remained in remand pending further investigations and trial.
Trial of the perpetrators
Wong Shi Xiang and Foo Li Ping
;Plea of guiltOn 28 February 2025, 38-year-old Wong Shi Xiang and 29-year-old Foo Li Ping claimed trial for the killing of Megan Khung. By then, the charges of murder were reduced and the couple pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Wong pleaded guilty to four charges, mainly one each of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, impeding investigations by disposing of a corpse, drug trafficking and drug consumption. Foo pleaded guilty to three charges, mainly one each of allowing the death of a child, child abuse and impeding investigations by disposing of a corpse.
The sentencing trial of both Wong and Foo was scheduled to begin on 3 April 2025. The prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Marcus Foo, sought a sentence of 28 to 30 years' imprisonment with 15 to 17 strokes of the cane for Wong, in addition to a jail term of 15 to 20 years for Foo, citing the heinous nature of the abuse and Foo's breach of her maternal duties by failing to protect her daughter from abuse. On the other hand, the defence sought 20 to 22 years' jail and 11 strokes of the cane for Wong and not more than 22 years' jail for Foo.
;Sentence
On 3 April 2025, the trial judge, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng, delivered her verdict, sentencing Foo to 19 years' imprisonment, and Wong to 30 years' imprisonment and 17 strokes of the cane. In her verdict, Justice Hoo condemned the couple for their "heinous and deplorable" acts of abuse against Khung, who was a vulnerable child "helplessly reliant" on the couple for her daily needs, but was ultimately shunned and mistreated by her own biological mother and Wong. Justice Hoo stated that the abusive acts and humiliating recordings of the abuse illustrated the "absolute depravity" and "sadistic ends" of the defendants, which deprived Khung of her basic dignity.
The judge additionally admonished the couple for their utter lack of remorse, as they not only killed Khung in cold blood but also displayed "utter callousness and cruelty" through the manner of resuscitating her and burning her body to cover up their atrocities, which further robbed Khung of her dignity in death and cemented proof of the couple prioritising their self-preservation.
Furthermore, Justice Hoo did not lend any mitigating weight in the pleas of the couple. In the case of Foo, who claimed in mitigation that she was abused by Wong, Justice Hoo pointed out that no amount of wrongdoing committed against Foo was a justification for her to subject her daughter to mistreatment and violence even if the allegations of domestic abuse were true, and she could never be absolved of any liability for her deplorable conduct. As for Wong, Justice Hoo rejected Wong's claim that he was under the influence of drugs and only trying to discipline Khung, dismissing it as an attempt to downplay his responsibility for the killing.
Noting that the sentences she passed were heavy, Justice Hoo quoted in her own words:
"To reiterate, when parents or caregivers abuse their children in ways which torment them physically, mentally and emotionally, the court must, on behalf of society, impose stiff punishment reflecting the disapprobation of such conduct."
As such, Justice Hoo handed the following sentences to the couple:
;Foo Li Ping
- Allowing the death of her child – years' imprisonment
- Disposal of a corpse – years' imprisonment
- Child abuse – Seven years' imprisonment
- Culpable homicide – years' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane
- Disposal of a corpse – Six years' imprisonment
- Drug trafficking – years' imprisonment and five strokes of the cane
- Drug consumption – Three years' imprisonment
After the end of sentencing, Foo was granted permission to speak to her mother and other relatives, who came to court to hear her sentence. It was confirmed that Foo would not appeal against her sentence.