Maid In Singapore Gets Life In Jail For Murdering Employer By Stabbing Her 97 Times
The 28-year-old said that at the time of the incident, she was in a "very angry state and I couldn't control my hand" and that she was "feeling empty" as she could not return to Indonesia.
By Sadho Ram — 24 Apr 2021, 03:16 PM
On Friday, 23 April, the High Court of Singapore sentenced a 28-year-old domestic worker from Indonesia to life imprisonment for the murder of her employer, who was stabbed to death back in 2016
The 28-year-old stabbed the 59-year-old woman almost 100 times after plotting the murder with the family's other domestic worker to retrieve her passport and flee back to Indonesia.
The victim, Madam Seow Kim Choo was killed on 7 June 2016.
According to a Singapore daily, Seow was found with a total of 78 stabs and incised wounds on her neck, head, and face. A further 19 incised and stab wounds were found on her left upper limb.
In the High Court yesterday, the accused, Daryati, was convicted of a capital murder charge, after she admitted to intentionally stabbing Madam Seow almost 100 times at her semi-detached house.
According to the facts of the case, Daryati started working for the family on 13 April 2016. However, less than two months into the job, she started feeling homesick and also missed her lover in Hong Kong.
Daryati said that she was treated well by her employers but she grew homesick.
A report in Today Online stated that a month before the murder, the maid, who at the time was 24-year-old, had already made up her mind about targeting her employer's family.
In her diary, she wrote: "I must carry out this plan quickly. I have to be brave even though life is at stake. I am ready to face all risks/consequences, whatever the risk, I must be ready to accept it. I hope that this plan succeed (sic) and run smoothly. My employer's family is my target. DEATH!!!"
So she hatched a plan to get back her passport, which was kept in a locked safe in the master bedroom and to steal money from the family so that she can start a business when she returned to Indonesia.
The Straits Times reported that Daryati geared up for the confrontation by sharpening one knife and hiding a second, smaller knife in a basket under the sink of a toilet on the second floor of the house.
However, on the day of the murder, she ultimately took along another knife from the storeroom, hid it in her pants, and headed up to the master bedroom where Seow was alone.
Daryati slit and stabbed Madam Seow's neck until she was lying in a pool of blood. She then retrieved the hidden knife and started stabbing the victim again after she saw her trying to pull herself up.
Last year, during her trial, Daryati said that at the time of the incident, she was in a "very angry state and I couldn't control my hand" and that she was "feeling empty" as she could not return to Indonesia.
"I was indeed stabbing Madam (many) times because I couldn't control my hands," she said.
The autopsy report showed that the 59-year-old victim also suffered multiple fractures to her face.
She also stabbed the victim's husband in the neck when he went to check on his wife.
In yesterday's sentencing, After Daryati was convicted, Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Kok Weng withdrew a stood-down charge of attempted murder of Madam Seow's husband, who turned 62 this year.
