Teo Kim Hong was born in Singapore in 1960. She left school at the age of eleven, reflecting a life marked early on by hardship and instability. At sixteen, she gave birth to her only son, who later served National Service by the time she was facing trial for murder in 1996.

By her mid-thirties, Teo was working as a prostitute along Teck Lim Road in Singapore’s red-light district. She was known among her colleagues and regulars in the brothel community as a woman with a quick temper and strong personality. She developed a working friendship with Ching Bee Ing, a younger Malaysian prostitute from Sarawak. The two often worked together, sharing customers in the competitive brothel trade.

However, tension grew between them. Witnesses later testified that the two women had fallen out a week before Ching’s death over a dispute about serving a client. Six days before the murder, Teo had physically assaulted Ching after an argument. Ching, however, never retaliated and instead apologized.

Outside her work, Teo’s personal life was tumultuous. She had a boyfriend, but their relationship became strained when he discovered her providing sexual services to clients. Teo also accused Ching of insulting him and of passing him a sexually transmitted infection.

On the night of 8 August 1995, at a brothel along Teck Lim Road, 26-year-old Ching Bee Ing (alias “To-to”) was resting in her room when Teo Kim Hong entered armed with a diving knife she had purchased earlier from a mall.

Without warning, Teo stabbed Ching seven times. Four of the wounds were fatal, piercing her liver and heart. Forensic pathologist Dr Wee Keng Poh later testified that any one of these four wounds was independently sufficient to cause death.

A 70-year-old male customer at the brothel intervened, restraining Teo until police arrived. The diving knife was seized, and Teo was arrested on the spot.

Ching, well-liked among colleagues and customers for her beauty and personality, was married and the mother of twin daughters in Malaysia. Her family, unaware she was working as a prostitute, believed she was employed as a waitress in Singapore. The news of her murder devastated her husband and siblings, who traveled from Kuala Lumpur to claim her body.

Teo was charged with murder and brought before the High Court on 17 January 1996. Judicial Commissioner Choo Han Teck presided, with prosecutors David Khoo and Beverly Wee representing the State, and defense counsel Winston Mok and Tan Teow Yeow representing Teo.

The prosecution’s case was straightforward: Teo bore longstanding resentment against Ching, and she had purchased a knife in advance, demonstrating premeditation. Witnesses testified to prior quarrels and Teo’s earlier assault on Ching.

Teo’s defense argued she was provoked by insults and feared threats from Ching’s boyfriend. She claimed she carried the knife only for self-defense and did not intend to kill. Her lawyers suggested she acted under “grave and sudden provocation.”

Judicial Commissioner Choo rejected these claims. He ruled that Ching had been unarmed, resting, and defenseless, while Teo acted as the aggressor. The multiple stab wounds and the choice to arm herself beforehand were clear indicators of intent to kill. On 24 January 1996, Teo was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.

Teo reportedly remained expressionless upon sentencing, though her elderly mother collapsed in court. Her older brother reacted angrily, shouting expletives at the judge.

On 26 March 1996, the Court of Appeal dismissed Teo’s appeal. The judges concluded unanimously that she had deliberately and brutally murdered Ching and that her claims of provocation carried no weight. On 30 August 1996, Teo, aged 36, was hanged at dawn in Changi Prison.