Anthony Ler coached a teenage boy on how to stab his estranged wife Annie Leong Wai Muen and stage the killing as a robbery, according to a Singapore High Court judgment reviewed by PEOPLE
NEED TO KNOW
- Annie Leong Wai Muen, 30, was stabbed to death outside the elevator on her floor at a Singapore apartment building in May 2001
- Prosecutors said her estranged husband Anthony Ler groomed a 15-year-old boy to carry out the killing for $100,000
- Ler was convicted of abetting murder and executed by hanging in Singapore in December 2002
A man who appeared to mourn beside his wife’s coffin had secretly orchestrated her killing, grooming a teenage boy to carry out the attack for money.
In May 2001, Anthony Ler Wee Teang persuaded a 15-year-old student to murder his estranged wife, Annie Leong Wai Muen, promising him $100,000 and coaching him on how to carry out the attack, according to a Singapore High Court judgment reviewed by PEOPLE.
Leong, 30, had gone downstairs from her parents’ apartment to meet Ler shortly before midnight on May 14, 2001, so she could sign documents related to the couple’s apartment. Realizing they did not have a pen, she returned upstairs to get one — leaving their 4-year-old daughter with Ler.
Moments later, after stepping out of the elevator on her floor, she was attacked from behind.
The teenage assailant slashed her neck and stabbed her in the chest before fleeing the scene, according to the judgment. Leong managed to stagger back to her mother’s apartment nearby before collapsing.
She was rushed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where she died around 1 a.m. on May 15 from severe bleeding caused by stab wounds to her heart and lung, a forensic pathologist later determined.
Police arrested the teen and Ler four days later.
According to the judgment, Ler had befriended the boy years earlier and later began discussing killing his wife with a group of teenagers he met regularly at a McDonald’s in Pasir Ris. He eventually persuaded the 15-year-old to carry out the attack, promising him a six-figure payment.
The boy later confessed that Ler had shown him knives and demonstrated how to stab someone in the neck, while also instructing him on how to avoid leaving evidence. He also told the teen to take Leong’s wallet to make the killing appear to be a robbery, according to the judgment.
Investigators later found a torn piece of newspaper at the crime scene, where the knife had been wrapped — the rest of the paper was recovered from Ler’s home, linking him to preparations for the attack.
Despite the evidence, Ler initially denied involvement.
In the days after the killing, he attended his wife’s wake and tearfully spoke to reporters near her coffin, voicing grief and regret, according to reporting by The Straits Times.
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“The expression of shock, the seeming concern for the dying Annie and the tears at the funeral were nothing more than rehearsed acts performed by an accomplished actor,” the judge wrote in the ruling.
Prosecutors said Ler had a clear motive: his wife was seeking a divorce, and her death would allow him to keep their apartment and potentially gain custody of their daughter.
The teenager who carried out the stabbing was spared the death penalty because of his age and was detained indefinitely. Ler was convicted of abetting murder and sentenced to death. His appeal was later dismissed, and he was executed by hanging in Singapore in December 2002.
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