http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,191791,00.html?
'Burn these for new year'
Pub waitress killed in CNY hit-and-run received curse in hell notes
By Chong Shin Yen
February 05, 2009
APPEAL FOR WITNESSES: A police sign sits in the carpark where Ms Yeo was killed. Her body was found on the road in front of the silver van in this picture. PICTURES: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS, JONATHAN CHOO
IT STARTED with crank calls to her handphone. Then Ms Yeo Lay Har, 33, began receiving anonymous letters containing hell notes - paper money used as burnt offerings for the dead.
And if that wasn't enough, there was a chilling message written on the back of one of these hell notes.
The sender wrote in Chinese: 'These are for you and your family to burn during the new year.'
Prescient? Perhaps.
Ms Yeo was killed in a hit-and-run accident below her block on 25 Jan, the eve of Chinese New Year.
Now her family is wondering if the incidents are related.
Ms Yeo's elder sister, Madam Lily Yeo, told The New Paper: 'It's unlucky to receive such inauspicious things. It's like someone is cursing that there will be a death in the family.
'But to think that the curse came true...'
Ms Yeo worked as a part-time waitress at a pub in Boat Quay and had finished her shift in the wee hours of that morning.
She was knocked down at the open-air carpark in front of Block 541, Serangoon North Avenue 4, around 6am.
She suffered a broken skull and multiple injuries and died on the spot.
The police are investigating the case.
Witnesses told the police that the driver had got out of the car and stood near Ms Yeo after she was hit. He then fled in his car.
The carpark has two exits and it's not known which direction the car was heading in when it hit Ms Yeo.
Strangely enough, the crank calls stopped after her death.
Ms Yeo, a divorcee with three daughters, lived with Madam Yeo and her family.
Madam Yeo, a housewife, said that her sister started receiving nuisance calls on her handphone from as early as 2007.
'The calls would come once every few weeks. Then they would stop. But after a while, she would receive them again,' said Madam Yeo.
Ms Yeo told her the crank calls were from a private number and the caller would remain silent when she answered the phone.
The calls usually came in the wee hours when the family was asleep.
Said Madam Yeo in Mandarin: 'Sometimes, I would hear her scolding the caller after she picked up the call but the person remained silent throughout.'
Last year, the nuisance calls got worse.
Ms Yeo's eldest daughter, 17, who just received her O-Level results this year, started receiving such calls as well.
Madam Yeo said: 'If my sister did not answer the calls, then her daughter would receive the same kind of calls.
'If my niece did not answer, the phone in my flat would start ringing.'
Madam Yeo said that the incidents happened once every few weeks.
She advised her sister to make a police report but the latter always brushed it off and said 'forget it'.
'She's afraid of trouble and knowing her, she would forget the matter after a few days,' said Madam Yeo.
Family members said Ms Yeo was a cheerful and friendly woman who had many friends.
Despite the crank calls, she refused to change her handphone number.
She told Madam Yeo that it would be 'troublesome' to do so as she had to inform all her friends of the new number.
The harassment intensified in the middle of last year, when Ms Yeo began receiving hell notes in the mail.
'I'm always the one checking the letter box and whenever I saw a dubious-looking envelope addressed to her, I would ask her who sent it,' said Madam Yeo.
'She told me there would always be a handwritten note sent with the hell notes. The sender would write unpleasant things like 'You are cheap, you will not die peacefully' in Chinese.'
The letters were addressed to Candy Yeo, the name her sister took when she was helping out at her sister-in-law's food stall in Tuas.
But since after starting work at the pub about three years ago, Ms Yeo began calling herself Yuki.
'She would be exasperated when she received them. She would tear them up and throw them into the bin,' said Madam Yeo.
She added that her sister received the hell notes about four to five times within six months.
The last time was in December last year and it came as a registered letter.
Said Madam Yeo: 'I was the one who received it from the postman and, coincidentally, my sister was at home that day.
'This time, I saw what was written on the back of the hell notes. It cursed us, saying that we needed to burn those hell notes during the new year.'
Madam Yeo was concerned and reminded her sister to be careful. But Ms Yeo brushed it off again and told her to ignore such nonsense.
She also told Madam Yeo that she had no idea who was behind the calls.
Ms Yeo divorced her ex-husband about five years ago and they had three daughters aged 17, 13 and 11. The couple remained amicable after their split.
Ms Yeo was closest to her eldest daughter, who was living with her before the teenager moved to her paternal aunt's house last year to prepare for her O Levels.
Her younger daughters are being looked after by her ex-husband's mother and she would visit them during their school holidays.
A week before the Chinese New Year, Ms Yeo took her eldest daughter out to shop for new clothes.
The girl was supposed to join her and Madam Yeo's family for their reunion dinner.
'We had planned to have steamboat and a few days before the accident, my sister went out and bought all the ingredients,' said Madam Yeo.
'She also bought bird's nest and chicken essence, which she was planning to give to our parents during Chinese New Year.'
Tragedy
A day before her death, Ms Yeo sent an SMS to remind her daughter to return home earlier for their reunion dinner.
But mother and daughter never saw each other again.
Instead of celebrating Chinese New Year, the Yeo family had to go to the mortuary to identify Ms Yeo's body.
'None of us had the mood to celebrate. My parents cried when they saw the things my sister had bought for them,' said Madam Yeo.
Ms Yeo's handphone has been handed over to the police. The family has not received crank calls since her death.
'We don't know if the incidents are related but we have told the police about the harassment,' said Madam Yeo.
She said the family was not aware of her sister offending anyone and hopes that more witnesses will come forward.
As it was dark when Ms Yeo was hit, witnesses could not make out the model or colour of the car, said Madam Yeo.
She said she also hopes the driver would surrender to the police.
'He might have enjoyed his reunion dinner that night but his actions have caused my nieces to lose their mother forever.
'The girls' reunion dinner will never be complete.'
Witnesses can call the Traffic Police at 1800-5471818 .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SINISTER MEANING?
2007:
Ms Yeo starts getting prank calls on her handphone. When she answers, the caller keeps silent.
2008:
Her eldest daughter gets similar prank calls on her handphone. If she does not answer, the prank caller calls the home phone.
Mid-2008:
Ms Yeo gets hell notes in the mail, accompanied with handwritten notes in which the sender curses her.
Dec 2008:
In the last note before her death, the sender says the hell notes are for Ms Yeo and her family to burn in the new year.
25 Jan, 2009:
Ms Yeo is killed in a hit-and-run accident below her block while returning home after work.
'Burn these for new year'
Pub waitress killed in CNY hit-and-run received curse in hell notes
By Chong Shin Yen
February 05, 2009
APPEAL FOR WITNESSES: A police sign sits in the carpark where Ms Yeo was killed. Her body was found on the road in front of the silver van in this picture. PICTURES: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS, JONATHAN CHOO
IT STARTED with crank calls to her handphone. Then Ms Yeo Lay Har, 33, began receiving anonymous letters containing hell notes - paper money used as burnt offerings for the dead.
And if that wasn't enough, there was a chilling message written on the back of one of these hell notes.
The sender wrote in Chinese: 'These are for you and your family to burn during the new year.'
Prescient? Perhaps.
Ms Yeo was killed in a hit-and-run accident below her block on 25 Jan, the eve of Chinese New Year.
Now her family is wondering if the incidents are related.
Ms Yeo's elder sister, Madam Lily Yeo, told The New Paper: 'It's unlucky to receive such inauspicious things. It's like someone is cursing that there will be a death in the family.
'But to think that the curse came true...'
Ms Yeo worked as a part-time waitress at a pub in Boat Quay and had finished her shift in the wee hours of that morning.
She was knocked down at the open-air carpark in front of Block 541, Serangoon North Avenue 4, around 6am.
She suffered a broken skull and multiple injuries and died on the spot.
The police are investigating the case.
Witnesses told the police that the driver had got out of the car and stood near Ms Yeo after she was hit. He then fled in his car.
The carpark has two exits and it's not known which direction the car was heading in when it hit Ms Yeo.
Strangely enough, the crank calls stopped after her death.
Ms Yeo, a divorcee with three daughters, lived with Madam Yeo and her family.
Madam Yeo, a housewife, said that her sister started receiving nuisance calls on her handphone from as early as 2007.
'The calls would come once every few weeks. Then they would stop. But after a while, she would receive them again,' said Madam Yeo.
Ms Yeo told her the crank calls were from a private number and the caller would remain silent when she answered the phone.
The calls usually came in the wee hours when the family was asleep.
Said Madam Yeo in Mandarin: 'Sometimes, I would hear her scolding the caller after she picked up the call but the person remained silent throughout.'
Last year, the nuisance calls got worse.
Ms Yeo's eldest daughter, 17, who just received her O-Level results this year, started receiving such calls as well.
Madam Yeo said: 'If my sister did not answer the calls, then her daughter would receive the same kind of calls.
'If my niece did not answer, the phone in my flat would start ringing.'
Madam Yeo said that the incidents happened once every few weeks.
She advised her sister to make a police report but the latter always brushed it off and said 'forget it'.
'She's afraid of trouble and knowing her, she would forget the matter after a few days,' said Madam Yeo.
Family members said Ms Yeo was a cheerful and friendly woman who had many friends.
Despite the crank calls, she refused to change her handphone number.
She told Madam Yeo that it would be 'troublesome' to do so as she had to inform all her friends of the new number.
The harassment intensified in the middle of last year, when Ms Yeo began receiving hell notes in the mail.
'I'm always the one checking the letter box and whenever I saw a dubious-looking envelope addressed to her, I would ask her who sent it,' said Madam Yeo.
'She told me there would always be a handwritten note sent with the hell notes. The sender would write unpleasant things like 'You are cheap, you will not die peacefully' in Chinese.'
The letters were addressed to Candy Yeo, the name her sister took when she was helping out at her sister-in-law's food stall in Tuas.
But since after starting work at the pub about three years ago, Ms Yeo began calling herself Yuki.
'She would be exasperated when she received them. She would tear them up and throw them into the bin,' said Madam Yeo.
She added that her sister received the hell notes about four to five times within six months.
The last time was in December last year and it came as a registered letter.
Said Madam Yeo: 'I was the one who received it from the postman and, coincidentally, my sister was at home that day.
'This time, I saw what was written on the back of the hell notes. It cursed us, saying that we needed to burn those hell notes during the new year.'
Madam Yeo was concerned and reminded her sister to be careful. But Ms Yeo brushed it off again and told her to ignore such nonsense.
She also told Madam Yeo that she had no idea who was behind the calls.
Ms Yeo divorced her ex-husband about five years ago and they had three daughters aged 17, 13 and 11. The couple remained amicable after their split.
Ms Yeo was closest to her eldest daughter, who was living with her before the teenager moved to her paternal aunt's house last year to prepare for her O Levels.
Her younger daughters are being looked after by her ex-husband's mother and she would visit them during their school holidays.
A week before the Chinese New Year, Ms Yeo took her eldest daughter out to shop for new clothes.
The girl was supposed to join her and Madam Yeo's family for their reunion dinner.
'We had planned to have steamboat and a few days before the accident, my sister went out and bought all the ingredients,' said Madam Yeo.
'She also bought bird's nest and chicken essence, which she was planning to give to our parents during Chinese New Year.'
Tragedy
A day before her death, Ms Yeo sent an SMS to remind her daughter to return home earlier for their reunion dinner.
But mother and daughter never saw each other again.
Instead of celebrating Chinese New Year, the Yeo family had to go to the mortuary to identify Ms Yeo's body.
'None of us had the mood to celebrate. My parents cried when they saw the things my sister had bought for them,' said Madam Yeo.
Ms Yeo's handphone has been handed over to the police. The family has not received crank calls since her death.
'We don't know if the incidents are related but we have told the police about the harassment,' said Madam Yeo.
She said the family was not aware of her sister offending anyone and hopes that more witnesses will come forward.
As it was dark when Ms Yeo was hit, witnesses could not make out the model or colour of the car, said Madam Yeo.
She said she also hopes the driver would surrender to the police.
'He might have enjoyed his reunion dinner that night but his actions have caused my nieces to lose their mother forever.
'The girls' reunion dinner will never be complete.'
Witnesses can call the Traffic Police at 1800-5471818 .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SINISTER MEANING?
2007:
Ms Yeo starts getting prank calls on her handphone. When she answers, the caller keeps silent.
2008:
Her eldest daughter gets similar prank calls on her handphone. If she does not answer, the prank caller calls the home phone.
Mid-2008:
Ms Yeo gets hell notes in the mail, accompanied with handwritten notes in which the sender curses her.
Dec 2008:
In the last note before her death, the sender says the hell notes are for Ms Yeo and her family to burn in the new year.
25 Jan, 2009:
Ms Yeo is killed in a hit-and-run accident below her block while returning home after work.
