Back in 2007, almost 15 years ago, the disappearance of a young adult named Ms Felicia Teo was thrust into the spotlight.
For those who are familiar with the case, you might know that after she was last seen at around 1am on 30 June 2007, her alleged murderer was arrested more than 13 years later in 2020.
After a series of investigations that took place over a 13-year stretch, Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee was accused of murdering her in an HDB flat located on the tenth floor at Block 19 Marine Terrace after her disappearance.
Ahmad, now 37 years old, was arrested in 2020 and has been in remand ever since, and was offered bail of $20,000 today (27 June).
Apart from Ahmad, another man has been suspected to have been involved in the case.
Ragil Putra Setia Sukmarahjana, who was 18 at the time, is still at large as of now. He is an Indonesian.
In court, the prosecution called for a discharge not amounting to an acquittal for the murder charge for Ahmad today (27 June).
This means that he may still face prosecution for the crime, which in this case is murder, if other appropriate information or evidence is revealed or presented in the future.
Despite his discharge, Ahmad is still expected to plead guilty sometime next week by 6 July to unlawfully depositing Ms Teo’s corpse in a public place.
Court documents did not share how Ms Teo, who was 19 at that time, died and who caused her death.
Authorities Still Trying to Find and Arrest Ragil
During the court hearing, deputy Public Prosecutors Yang Ziliang and R. Arvindren explained that the prosecution is still waiting for the arrest of Ragil, and that there have been attempts to try and trace the man down since he became a suspect.
“Authorities have made and continue to make reasonable efforts to trace the co-accused. The Indonesian authorities have been informed and they are in the process of tracing [him].
“This is not a case where police have been trying for many years to trace the co-accused. The tracing of him only began after the accused was arrested one and a half years ago and new facts came to light during the investigations,” they mentioned to District Judge Eugene Teo.
The DPPs also noted that there is currently no evidence pointing to the fact that Ragil is dead.
Ahmad’s Lawyer Asked for Aquittal
Currently, Ahmad is represented in court by Shashi Nathan, Tania Chin and Laura Yeo from Withers KhattarWong.
During the court hearing, Mr Nathan requested for a discharge amounting to an acquittal for his client.
This means that Ahmad will not be eligible to be charged with murder again in the future.
To support his viewpoint, Mr Nathan told the court that only granting Ahmad a discharge not amounting to an aquittal will result in Ahmad having the murder charge “hanging over him indefinitely”.
“They are not just asking for a pound of flesh. They want you to lay your head on a wooden board and wait for the guillotine to fall,” he explained.
Apart from that, the lawyer also revealed that Ahmad and his family have been affected gravely by the situation.
In particular, Ahmad’s wife ended up moving out of her home due to the fact that others were disturbing her while she was in her house.
Skull Fragment May be Sent to the United States for Tests
Mr Nathan added that Ms Teo’s body has yet to be found either, and that authorities previously found a fragment of a skull that was apparently left behind by Ahmad when he disposed of her corpse around Punggol Track 24 back in 2007.
He also mentioned that the prosecution previously informed him about their plans to send the fragment to the United States for it to undergo mitochondrial testing, which might include DNA-related tests.
He has apparently not received any other information or updates regarding this plan.
Judge’s Response
After the lawyer’s plea, Judge Teo still ended up granting Ahmad a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
The judge acknowledged Mr Nathan’s points regarding how the murder charge would continue to loom over Ahmad and expressed his commiseration, but added that there might be a review for this case in the future.
He then accepted the prosecution’s case.
“Based on what we have now, I agree there is no basis for granting an outright discharge amounting to an acquittal,” he announced.
Ahmad was also charged with six more charges on the same day, and Ragil was named in all six charges as well.
Actions that the Men Allegedly Took Back then With Ms Teo
And if you’re wondering what else the men have allegedly done to Ms Teo, here’s the list.
According to court proceedings, Ahmad and Ragil apparently left Ms Teo’s corpse near Punggol Track 24 after her death.
They did so either on 30 June 2007 or sometimes around that date.
Afterwards, they allegedly took several of Ms Teo’s personal belongings, such as her mobile phone, with them.
The pair then apparently placed her mobile phone somewhere around East Coast Park on 30 June, meaning that they had fabricated false evidence.
Additionally, they were found to have not provided information regarding Ms Teo’s sudden or unnatural death on purpose to the authorities on purpose, despite the fact that both of them are legally bound to do so.
Apart from that, either one or both of the men also allegedly called Ms Teo’s mobile phone in order to make it seem like they thought she was alive despite knowing that she was already dead.
A month later in July 2007, they also allegedly provided false information to two police officers.
They said that they were unaware of what had happened to Ms Teo after she left the tenth-storey HDB flat at Block 19 Marine Terrace in June 2007.
Ms Teo’s Relation to Ahmad and Ragil
After Ms Teo’s family last saw her at night on 29 June 2007 right before she left her home in Bras Basah, Ahmad and Ragil are apparently the last people to have seen Ms Teo alive.
She went to the HDB flat at Marine Terrace after leaving her house that night.
It was previously said that she left her house that night to attend a party, and that she went to the HDB flat in Marine Terrace with the two men after leaving the party.
Based on their online profiles, the trio were acquainted through studying at LASALLE College of the Arts together, and they were friends as well.
Afterwards, closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of Ms Teo walking into a lift of a Marine Terrace HDB block with two other men, later confirmed to be Ahmad and Ragil, was found as well.
Case Was Referred to CID After 13 Years
When the case first surfaced back in 2007, the police initially classified it as a missing persons case since there was no actual evidence that connected Ahmad and Ragil to Ms Teo’s disappearance.
Ms Teo’s family and friends also organised extensive searches to try and find the young woman, with some people even going to Johor Bahru in an attempt to find her.
The police then referred the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in 2020 after reviewing it for 13 years.
After some time, the CID managed to find the belongings that Ms Teo had apparently carried with her when she was reported missing, offering an important lead to the case.
The CID was able to trace the belongings to Ahmad and Ragil.
Thereafter, Ahmad was arrested by the police on 15 December 2020 and was charged with murder two days later on 17 December that year.
If convicted of murder, offenders face the death sentence.
Featured Image: Facebook (Danial Enemiko) + The Straits Times
