SINGAPORE: A man accused of murdering his lover at Gardens by the Bay in 2016 and dumping her body in Lim Chu Kang where he burnt it for days claimed trial on Tuesday .for strangling 31-year-old engineer Cui Yajie on Jul 12, 2016 in the front passenger seat of his car in a secluded road.He is accused of killing his lover of about a year to silence her, as she had threatened to expose his lies about his relationships and bogus investment schemes, jeopardising his career and marriage.
"By the accused's account, even if he did not strangle her to death, he would have killed her by burning."Two days after her alleged murder, Ms Cui's MediaTek colleague Chong Hwee Nee lodged a police report stating that she had not been seen in the office since Jul 11. Although her body was never recovered, there was ample evidence that she was burnt there, as clusters of debris and charcoal were seen at the spot where Khoo claimed he had burnt the body.
Speaking on the witness stand through a Mandarin interpreter, Ms Wu said she had hit it off with Ms Cui as they were both from China, and that Ms Cui regularly updated her on her relationship with Khoo every day over lunch. He then asked her to be his girlfriend, and she agreed after about a month, becoming intimate quickly after.According to the prosecution, she became increasingly unhappy that Khoo spent so much time with his"ex-wife", who was really still his wife, and his son that they had heated quarrels frequently.