Inside Crime Scene

Two crimes – 24 years apart, two 8-year-old girls, each brutally murdered. Both cases have very different outcomes, one remains a cold case, with her murderer has yet to be caught and is among us. Huang Na was smoldered by a man she called “uncle”, was Goh Beng Choo also killed by someone she knew well?

What happens when the equation is reversed – when our promising youth wield a knife and become mindless killers – stabbing a parent to death, or slashing random women on the street? Is it an innate psychological issue, or is it a condition compounded negatively by inappropriate environmental exposure?

This episode revisits the infamous Toa Payoh child-killer, Adrian Lim, who claimed to have great “healing powers”, together while another man whom he claimed to have flung his wife from 13 floors because he was under the influence of “black magic”.

All around the world, filicide – the killing of a child by the parent – account for 10-15% of homicide rates. In Singapore, thankfully, our numbers are much lower, though we’re also not an exception. What drives parents to kill their precious children? Is altruism an acceptable defense?

It has been said that money is the root of all evil. Swindlers thrive on, and take advantage of, the inflated egos of their victims. Scammers are quick to prey on man’s greed for more money, which is why sleights of hand and ponzi schemes succeed. What if the conman is in a profession our society holds in high esteem – a lawyer, for example?

Investigators on the ground rely on forensic evidence and interrogations to construct a case – but what if the perpetuators outsmart the law by lying or resorting to fabricating the evidence when this can make a difference between life and death sentence, or a 13-year escape from prosecution. Will the truth of what really happened ever come to light?