Chao Tzee Cheng
Chao Tzee Cheng was a renowned forensic pathologist in Singapore. Chao was respected for solving several notorious crimes in Singapore, and raised Singapore's level of professionalism in the area of forensics.
Biography
Early life and education
Chao Tzee Cheng was the son of a professor in cultural studies and a school principal. Of Cantonese origin, he later migrated to Singapore with his parents and received his education at Catholic High School and Victoria Continuation School. Although offered a scholarship to read engineering in the United States, he decided to take up medicine at University of Hong Kong.After graduating with an MBBS in Hong Kong in 1961, Chao returned to Singapore to serve as a medical officer. Chao also took a Diploma in Clinical Pathology in 1967, followed by a Diploma of Pathology in 1968 and a Diploma of Medical Jurisprudence in 1968.
However, a car accident in West Malaysia left him with a weakened right arm and dashed his hopes of a career in surgery. Unfazed, Professor Chao turned to a career in pathology. By 1968, Chao qualified as a pathologist, obtaining his specialised skills from the Royal London Hospital, Medical College, currently under the Queen Mary, University of London.
Chao married Joyce Wong Yoke Choy in 1963. They had one son Dr Alexandre Chao, who succumbed to SARS in 2003, and two granddaughters.
Career
Upon his return to Singapore, Chao was appointed the forensic pathologist at the Department of Pathology in the Ministry of Health. Almost immediately, Chao was involved in his first case as a pathologist. He was invited to be an expert witness in the murder case of Koh Liang Chuen in 1969. The notoriety of this case raised Chao's standing as a forensic expert in the region. His forensic expertise and duties extended beyond Singapore to countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong and even certain states of West Africa.In his career, Chao performed over 25,000 autopsies and was the authoritative expert witness in many unsolved murder cases worldwide. His forensic capability was demonstrated in the investigation of mass disasters such as the Spyros blast, the Singapore Cable Car tragedy, the Hotel New World disaster and the SilkAir Flight 185 tragedy. He also helped solve notorious crimes in the annals of Singapore criminal law, such as the Adrian Lim cult murders, the John Martin Scripps body parts murders, the Bulgarian girl murder and the Flor Contemplacion case. He was nicknamed the "Justice of Murder" by his associates for his uncanny ability to solve murder cases. Additionally, Chao was the final speaker and medical adviser of State Coroner Lim Keng Seong during a 1988 coroner's inquiry into the death of Chong Yun Jing, who died of meningitis that arose as a complication of the brain surgery she underwent three months before her death.
Despite the political sensitivities of several of his cases, Professor Chao remained objective and presented the facts as he knew them. He was also known to stand for justice, no matter which side of the fence it stood on. For example, in 1975, he testified as an expert witness for the defence at the Kuala Lumpur High Court trial of Hugh Ashley Johnston for the murder of his wife. In the end, a six-to-one jury verdict held that Johnston had no intention to kill his wife.
Chao served in various capacities, including the Master of the Singapore Academy of Medicine, and President of the Singapore Society of Pathology. He also founded the Medico-Legal Society, and served as its President from 1985 until his death in 2000.
In 1999, Chao co-authored a book with Audrey Perera entitled Murder Is My Business, which documented some of his better-known cases.
Death
Chao died in his sleep on a visit to his sister in New York on 21 February 2000. At the time of his death, Chao was holding posts in the Institute of Science and Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Health, National University of Singapore and Singapore General Hospital in Singapore. In memory of him, the National University of Singapore has set up the Chao Tzee Cheng Professorship in Pathology and Forensic Science.Honours
For his services to Singapore, Chao was awarded the Public Administration Silver Medal in 1975, Gold Medal in 1979 and the Meritorious Medal in 1995.List of cases solved by Professor Chao
The case of Mimi Wong
On 6 January 1970, 31-year-old dance hostess Mimi Wong Weng Siu and her 37-year-old ex-husband and sweeper Sim Woh Kum murdered 33-year-old Ayako Watanabe, who was the wife of Wong's Japanese lover Hiroshi Watanabe. The murder was witnessed by the Watanabes's 9-year-old eldest daughter Chieko, who came together with her mother and two siblings to Singapore to visit her father. Hiroshi, an engineer, who had an affair with Wong for 3 years and gotten disapproval from his wife regarding the issue, wanted to end the affair with Wong, who was not willing to. Filled with jealousy, Wong then asked for help from Sim, with whom she bore two sons, to help her in the murder. While he was conducting an autopsy on her, Professor Chao found two knife wounds on Ayako Watanabe's neck, and one to her abdomen, along with a few others. Chao also made a certified finding that the woman died around 5 to 6 minutes after the fatal wounds were inflicted on her.At the trial, both Wong and Sim pointed fingers at one another, with Wong even putting up a defence of diminished responsibility, with her psychiatrist Dr. Wong Yip Chong claiming that she caught the Japanese encephalitis virus from Hiroshi Watanabe and thus suffered from a viral brain infection at the time of the killing. However, she was found to be not suffering from any diminished responsibility by the prosecution's psychiatric expert. After a trial lasting 26 days, on 7 December 1970, both Mimi Wong and Sim Woh Kum were found guilty of murder and condemned to hang for murdering Ayako Watanabe. Their subsequent appeals against the sentence and pleas for presidential clemency were later rejected. On the morning of 27 July 1973, the couple were executed in Changi Prison. Mimi Wong was the first woman to be sentenced to death for murder in Singapore.
1972 Pulau Ubin Murder
On the night of 22 April 1972 at Pulau Ubin, 25-year-old Harun bin Ripin and 19-year-old Mohamed Yasin bin Hussin barged into the home of 58-year-old Poon Sai Imm and robbed her. During the robbery, when Harun went around the house to look for valuables to steal, Yasin was restraining the victim and Poon died during the struggle. The two men proceeded to dispose the body into the sea before returning to the mainland, but the body was unexpectedly fished out from the sea by a fisherman the following morning. Nine months later, when he was arrested for another crime, Harun surprised his interrogators by confessing to them about his involvement in the robbery. This confession led to Yasin's arrest, and the two men were charged with the murder of Poon Sai Imm. Professor Chao found that there were nine fractures found on Poon's ribs, which were caused by Yasin while he was restraining and sitting on top of her, which led to her heart stop beating. There were also injuries found by Chao on the vaginal area and thighs of the victim, proving that Yasin had pried open her legs and proceeded to rape her during the restraining of the victim.At the end of their trial on 15 March 1974, Harun was found guilty of robbery by night and sentenced to 12 years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane, while Yasin was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Although Yasin's appeal against his sentence was rejected by the Court of Appeal in November 1974, his appeal to the Privy Council in London was accepted and he was sentenced to 2 years' jail for committing a rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide. However, Yasin was brought back to court again and promptly charged with rape. At the trial on 11 May 1977, Yasin denied raping the elderly woman despite the forensic evidence presented by the prosecution and Harun's testimony against him. At the end of the trial on 12 May 1977, Yasin was found guilty of attempted rape and he was sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment.
Murder of policeman Lee Kim Lai
On 25 April 1978, 18-year-old police national serviceman Lee Kim Lai was abducted by three men from his sentry post at Mount Vernon and forced into a taxi. The trio, armed with knives, killed him for his service revolver and also killed the taxi driver Chew Theng Hin. Professor Chao Tzee Cheng found a total of 15 stab wounds on Lee, and he certified that the policeman died from two fatal stab wounds to the neck. The driver Chew Theng Hin's death was due to him being fatally stabbed as well.Just on the same night when the policeman was murdered, a police officer named Siew Man Seng had seen two of these abductors behaving suspiciously around the area where the trio abandoned the taxi; deciding not to return home, he went out of his car and gave chase to the two men, managing to arrest 20-year-old Ong Hwee Kuan and bring him back for questioning. At the same time of Ong's arrest, Lee's body was found inside the abandoned taxi, and there were 15 stab wounds on his body. Later on, the next day, the corpse of 60-year-old Chew was also found in a drain, further linking Ong to the double murder. Yeo was later arrested in his flat and the revolver was recovered, together with some bullets. The third accomplice of the crime, 20-year-old Ong Chin Hock, surrendered himself soon after. The three men were eventually convicted of murder on 23 May 1979, and sentenced to death. They were hanged on 24 February 1984.