Huang Na was an eight-year-old Chinese national living at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre in Singapore. Her disappearance on 10 October 2004 sparked a three-week-long nationwide search which ended when her body was found on 21 October. Many Singaporeans attended her funeral, giving bai jin and gifts, but a minority engaged in controversial actions, such as trying to profit from her death. Malaysian-born Mr Took Leng How, a vegetable packer at the wholesale centre, was arrested and charged with Huang Na's murder. Following a highly publicised 14-day trial he was found guilty and executed, after appeals to the court and president failed.
Background
editMr Huang Qinrong and Mdm Huang Shuying were both born in 1973 to farming families in Putian, Fujian, China.[1] They met in 1995 and married soon after, as Mdm Huang was pregnant with Huang Na.[1] In 1996, Mr Huang left to "seek his fortune" in Singapore and worked illegally as a vegetable packer at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre.[1] When Mdm Huang found out that he had affairs in Singapore, she divorced him and was given custody of Huang Na.[1] She later remarried to Mr Zheng Wenhai, a Fujian businessman whom she had lived with for four years,[2] and became pregnant with his child in early 2003.[3]
In May 2003, she entered Singapore as a peidu mama accompanying Huang Na, who was enrolled in Jin Tai Primary School.[3] They lived at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, where Mdm Huang worked,[4] and Huang Na was very close to Mr Took Leng How, a vegetable packer at the wholesale centre.[5][6] Born in Malaysia as the second child of four in a close-knit family, Mr Took came to Singapore when he was 18, seeking a better-paying job.[7] At the wholesale centre, he often played with Huang Na, bought her food and gave her rides on his bicycle.[5][6] People from the wholesale centre and Jin Tai Primary School described Huang Na as an intelligent, independent, sociable and active child.[4][8]
Disappearance and search
editTrial of Took
editAftermath
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d "Real dad: How our family broke up", The Sunday Times, 7 November 2004.
- ^ "She always wanted my surname", The New Paper, 4 November 2004.
- ^ a b "Yes, I lied", The New Paper, 23 November 2004.
- ^ a b "A dream for Huang Na", The New Paper, 2 November 2004.
- ^ a b "Who is the real Took?", The Straits Times, 31 July 2005.
- ^ a b "He's not the one and he would never hurt her", The New Paper, 23 October 2004.
- ^ "Sentenced to death", TODAY, 27 August 2005.
- ^ "Huang Na touches nation's heart", The Straits Times, 22 October 2004.