Twelve Clues of Christmas: The Singapore Science Centre Cafe Mystery

Ovidia--every other Tuesday

We got to play at murder at the Singapore Science Centre Cafe last week!
Forensic details are usually the steps mystery writers (or I, at least) try to fudge so I jumped at a chance to find out how a real forensic scientist (Kang Hua in this case) would unravel this murder I created around the forensic introduction stations they set up...

And here (along with some of the evidence) is The Murder Scenario:

What we know: Just after 3am on Tuesday morning, police were called to the Judgement Heights Apartment on Forensic Walk. The night security guard, concerned that the single lift was stuck on Level 8 for over an hour, walked up to investigate.
There, on the landing of Level 8, he found the body of the Victim, Dan Quek.
He had been stabbed in the chest and bled out.

Forensic examination determined he had been dead for under an hour. The murder weapon was not found. (there was also a strong odour of urine in the out-of-order lift, but this was overlooked at the time, given the guard proceeded to throw up in the lift)

After preliminary investigations, the police narrowed down their suspects to 3 residents whose apartments shared the landing on Level 8, Judgement Heights with the Victim Dan: Suspect A: Amina Suspect B: Ben Suspect C: Chong

Victim Dan’s behaviour had created difficulties with his neighbours, especially those on his shared landing, since he moved in last month.

Suspect A: (Amina) complained that Dan harassed her with sexist and racist comments when their paths crossed, even trying to molest her last week, when she encountered him on the landing.
After she reminded him of the security camera on their landing, Victim D threw her planter (she was growing basil plants in the common area) at the camera, wrecking both the camera and her plants. (Camera was not yet replaced, explaining why the attack wasn’t recorded).

Suspect A was heard threatening the Victim and demanding compensation for her plants.
The Victim was heard making sexually suggestive comments to Suspect A.

Suspect B: (Ben) reported that last week Dan deliberately drove into his Forza 350 sports GT scooter in the basement carpark, after repeatedly mocking men who ride scooters.
Suspect B demanded compensation for the damage and repairs.
Dan laughed and told him couldn’t prove anything and offered to fight Ben.

Suspect B was heard threatening the Victim and demanding compensation for his scooter.

The Victim was heard threatening to fight Suspect B and calling him a "Siao char bor" (疯女人) (meaning crazy woman—but witnesses were certain it was Suspect B and not Suspect A or Mrs Suspect C who Dan was taunting)

Suspect C: (Chong) complained about the noise coming from Dan’s apartment.
Dan had complained about Chong’s baby crying (Chong and his wife have a newborn) and in revenge, started blasting loud music and playing wrestling matches at high volume, especially in the early hours of the morning.
Chong also suspects Dan of leaving broken beer bottles around the Chongs’ front door three nights ago, but since the landing camera isn’t working there is no proof.

Suspect C (as well as Suspect C’s wife and mother-in-law) were heard threatening the Victim and demanding compensation for his wife’s medical bills due to stress and sleepless nights.

The Victim was heard telling Chong that his wife was fat and his baby was ugly.

Thanks to cameras on the perimeter of the property and carpark entrance, it was determined that no one entered or left the property during that time.

The Evidence:

This note was found in the Victim Dan’s pocket: I recorded you smoking in the kopitiam (fine $1000), urinating in the lift (fine: up to $3000) and plucking flowers from roadside plants (fine up $5000) Give me the compensation or I’m posting the video on TikTok #CaughtRedHanded, on YouTube titled 'Singapore’s Most Wanted!' and LinkedIn tagged to your company.

None of the suspects admits to writing the note, but police obtained samples of their handwriting for comparison, which were up for comparison at the Handwriting Station, along with a comparison guide.

Handwriting Sample from Suspect A: Amina

Yes, I threatened Don. I have a cat I love very much. Don told me he was allergic to cats so I should get rid of it if I ever wanted a real man like him to show me a good time in bed…
I told him I was going adopt twenty, thirty, a hundred more cats just to make sure he stays away!
The next morning I found someone had pushed poisoned sardines under my door in the night. There were dead ants and dead cockroaches all over but luckily my cat is a fussy eater.
That’s when I told Don that if he ever tried to hurt my cat again I would kill him. But I didn’t.

My shoe size? My shoes are Size 6.


Handwriting Sample from Suspect B: Ben

I never said anything to Don that he didn’t deserve.
After an accident years ago, I switched from riding a motorcycle to a scooter because I couldn’t manage the gear shift with my right leg any more. I still have trouble putting weight on it.
Don mocked me, saying only girls and girlie men ride scooters.
Last week he purposely drove into my scooter, knocked it over and crushed it. The head lamp is broken, handle bar bent, clutch lever needs to be changed, front wheel needs re-aligning.
I told he needs to pay for the damage. He laughed at me, said I couldn’t prove it.

Why do you want my shoe size? Anyway it’s 9.

Handwriting Sample from Suspect C: Chong

Maybe I said some threatening things, but Don never paid attention.
Whenever he was home he was blasting his music or playing his wrestling matches at high volume or shouting at people.
I told him so many times, my baby and my wife just got home from hospital after a difficult delivery, please have some consideration. Please don’t make so much noise when you come back at 2am!
What does the man do? The next morning he comes round at 3am and smashes beer bottles on our front door. In the morning there’s broken glass everywhere.
My mum in law said she wanted to kill him, but she’s 65 years old and I don’t think she did it.
If you find out who did, tell them I said thanks.

My shoe size is 9.

The police asked about shoe sizes because a partial shoe print was found in the blood on the floor on the landing. Unfortunately no blood was found on the suspects’ footwear (possibly due to severed ponding on the premises) but shoe prints from the suspects were taken for analysis and comparison.

These were on display at the Footprint Station, along with the bloody footprint.

Traces of what appeared to be blood were found on the clothing of all three suspects, and participants were introduced to the Kastle-Meyer test at the Blood Test station.

And of course--fingerprints...

At the Fingerprint Station, fingerprints collected from the suspects were compared to those lifted from a half empty cigarette packet collected at the scene. There was blood spatter on top of it, suggesting it was thrown against the wall before the victim was killed.

Finally, at the Microscope Station, hairs found on the scene were compared to those taken from two of the three suspects (one of the suspects is bald) along with a sample hair from the victim.

And of course: The Solution:
Dan came home drunk around 2am. He found the handwritten note taped to his front door and went to bang on Suspect B’s door.
Suspect B had told him before that he would report him and get him fined, so Dan knew it was him.
Suspect B, afraid of Dan’s temper and violent tendencies, brought the knife with him when he opened the door.
He told Dan he wasn’t asking for anything more than the CFMOTO mechanic quoted him for repairs and told Dan to come to the carpark and see the damage for himself. Dan went into the life and—adding insult to injury—dropped his pants and peed on the lift control panel.

The urine (water and electrolytes) short-circuited the lift's electronics (the panel was over five years old and insulation had worn off) causing the lift breakdown.
Dan lit a cigarette and offered Suspect B the packet, asking if girls like him smoked.
Suspect B grabbed the packet and flung it against the wall (his fingerprints were later found on the packet) and when Dan laughed, Suspect B stabbed him in the chest with the knife.

Then Suspect B returned to his apartment and cleaned his bloodied shoe with ST Shoe Cleaning Foam from NTUC (a nice spot to mention sponsors)—guaranteed to remove all traces and odours.

I hope you enjoyed this--it was certainly fun coming up with a scenario that would touch on all the forensic stations there.

But I'm going to end this piece with a bit of indulgence and share my own favourite exhibit at the Science Centre--this beautiful creature in the coral diorama I've learned is a banded shrimp!

Coral shrimps are cleaner shrimps, meaning they clean parasites and mucus from passing fish. In the wild, they sometimes set up cleaning stations where up to 25 shrimps congregate, waving their filaments to advertise their services.
Very helpful services, as being shrimp-cleaned improves the health of fish and also seems to reduce stress--fish have been observed sleeping while being cleaned!

I like to think that's what murder writers do too--we pick at and pick off all the little (and big) annoying, irritating and injurious parasites and mucus on passing readers and sending them back into the ocean a little soothed!

Have a very Happy Christmas everybody!