SHOCK No 1: A woman, now known to be a Filipino maid, had been hacked to death with parts of her body found at Orchard Road and MacRitchie Reservoir.
Shock No 2 came yesterday: The alleged hack-and-carry killer is not a man as expected, but a woman.
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For Filipina Pamela Wee, shock No 3 was news that the police arrested a fellow Filipina, a maid who works in Singapore.
Mrs Wee, a housewife, had the same reaction as most in the Filipino community who heard the news that a maid had been arrested yesterday, at 12.40am.
'The area where the head was found is popular among Filipinos, especially on Sundays,' she said.
'I already had a bad feeling that it could be a fellow countryman.'
Then came the question on many lips: 'How does a woman have the strength to chop the body and carry it around with her?
'Why was she killed in the first place? This case is the only thing we talked about all day.'
News that the two main characters in the latest body parts case were Filipina maids had spread quickly among the Filipino community and was the hot topic in town.
Mrs Wee, 32, who married a Singaporean and moved here from Manila three years ago, had met up with three other friends outside Lucky Plaza, a favourite haunt among Filipinos.
She had read from newspapers that a woman's head and limbs had been found in a blue sports bag outside the busy Orchard MRT station on Friday.
The woman's torso was later discovered in a suitcase at MacRitchie Reservoir, clad only in her underwear.
Police believe that she is a 26-year-old Filipina maid but are not releasing her name until her family back home is informed.
The New Paper on Sunday found out that she is married and is known as Jane. She came from northern Luzon in the Philippines and has worked here for a few years.
Less than 12 hours after the body parts were discovered, the police swooped on Sunglade condominium in Serangoon Ave 2.
There, they took another Filipina maid called Guen back for questioning. They also seized some red plastic bags and a chopper with a 17cm-long blade from the apartment.
She was arrested after they interviewed her.
CHARGED TODAY
The suspect, 29, who works for a permanent resident, will be charged with murder before a magistrate in a special court sitting today.
Her employers were out of the country when the alleged murder took place.
Both maids knew each other well and are said to be from the same province.
The New Paper on Sunday understands that the police are still trying to establish a motive, and where the killing took place.
It is still a mystery how the bag was transported to Orchard Rd. Footage from security cameras at the MRT station did not capture anything suspicious.
Evidence from the trolley bag at MacRitchie had apparently linked the suspect to the killing. Could fingerprints have been left behind?
Jane's slightly decomposed body was found by a cleaner behind the mosaic wall near Orchard MRT station on Friday during lunch time, just metres away from the pedestrian walkway.
No identification papers were found on her but the police traced her through her fingerprints.
How can a woman have the strength to dismember another human being? While it may seem incredible, this is not the first time that a woman has dismembered a body.
In 1974, Singaporean housewife Sim Joo Keow, 44, chopped up the body of her sister-in-law, Ms Kwek Lee Eng, 53, after strangling her during a fight over money.
Sim had got the idea from seeing fish being chopped up in the market. She was convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and jailed 10 years.
The legs were discovered in a shed off Aljunied Road, the head and arms on a tree by the banks of Kallang River and the torso in Sim's house in Jalan Besar.
The dispute which led to the murder had been over a sum of $3,000, which Sim owed.
For now, fellow Filipinos can only wonder what could have happened between the two women for it to end in a killing.
Ms Mary Dime, 35, a sales assistant at a handphone accessory shop at Lucky Plaza, thinks it could be a money dispute or jealousy.
'Maybe the killer got angry with her over another man or it could just be about money,' said Ms Dime.
'I can't think of what else could lead a person to kill. I'm interested to know who the two women are because they could very well be my customers too.'
Officials from the Philippines Embassy met the suspect at the Police Cantonment Complex yesterday, where she is being held for investigations.
The embassy has also arranged for a lawyer for her when she appears in court this morning to face the murder charge.
Other killer maids
FILIPINA Flor Contemplacion, 42, was hanged here for murdering another Filipino maid and a Singaporean boy in 1991.
Contemplacion had handed over to Mrs Della Maga, 34, a package to be carried to the Philippines. It was large and heavy, and when Mrs Maga objected, Contemplacion became angry, strangled her and drowned Mrs Maga's ward, four-year-old Nicholas Huang.
In 1997, another Filipina, Edna Sumawang, 33, who had come here to work, was arrested after the killing of her sister-in-law, Mrs Anita Fuggan, also a maid, in a Pasir Ris flat.
The two women had fought before Sumawang stabbed Mrs Fuggan, 36, with a pair of scissors. She was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and jailed for three years.