SINGAPORE, Sept 29 — Just two days before their divorce proceedings were to be finalised, Cheung Thiam Teng snuck into his estranged wife’s condominium and attacked her with a crowbar.

Shortly after that, she fell out of her eighth-floor unit, clad only in her underwear, and he flung himself out of the bedroom window after the police arrived at the scene.

A Coroner’s Inquiry yesterday found that Cheung, 43, had committed suicide, after causing the death of Ly Thi Thu Trang, 30, on April 30 this year. State Coroner Marvin Bay said: "Cheung had deliberately caused Ly to fall from height and sustain her fatal injuries. I thus find that he had perpetrated the unlawful killing of Ly.”

It is not established if she had jumped from the building or that he pushed her. She had bruises on her left upper limb, caused either by pinching or gripping, and bruises on her right wrist from a cable tie used to restrain her. She also had an abrasion on her back, a result of being hit with a crowbar.

Ly had earlier moved out of the couple’s marital home in Woodlands into Silverscape Condominium in Geylang as she was afraid of her husband. She claimed that he was morbidly jealous, and suspected that any man looking at her was her lover.

However, even after the move, her troubles were far from over, as he started stalking her.

Tong Choon Peng, who claimed to be Ly’s confidante, told the police during investigations that he spotted Cheung loitering near the condominium weekly.

Cheung would wait in his car or walk around the condominium’s perimeter, and on two late-night occasions, he was seen drinking beer by the roadside and looking towards her unit.

In September last year, Cheung was charged with trespassing his wife’s apartment, wrongful confinement, and causing hurt, among other crimes. He was remanded at the Institute of Mental Health and told the psychiatrist that he suspected his wife of seeing other men and that she was working as a masseuse.

Cheung was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. The court case concluded in March, and he was sentenced to a one-week short detention order — a community based sentencing — and given a one-year Mandatory Treatment Order for his mental condition.

During this period, Ly applied for a Personal Protection Order and initiated divorce proceedings. She even made plans to move to Australia with their two sons, aged two and nine.

After Cheung was released from prison, he sent her phone text messages threatening "pay back” in April.

At around 11.30am on April 30, Cheung let himself into her condominium premises by reaching through the side gate for its release button. Surveillance cameras showed him picking up a crowbar from the rubbish bin on the eighth floor.

At 11.54am, the police received a call from Ly. "Someone is threatening to kill me,” she said. By the time they arrived, she was found lying on a grass patch in front of her apartment block.

Cheung was seen drinking and smoking in her unit, before climbing out of the bedroom window onto a ledge at 12.40pm. Despite police negotiations, he remained agitated. Although a safety net was deployed, he swept it aside with his arm and fell onto the footpath.

Ly was pronounced dead at 1.55pm and Cheung at 3.04pm at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Cheung had traces of drugs found in his system. His mobile phone contained seven videos, recorded minutes before his death. He filmed himself saying: "I did beat her, ya. I give her a few (punches) this time. How could I have known that she would jump down?”

In his findings, Coroner Bay noted that their marriage was marked by violence.

Ly’s death brought attention to the need to take stalking seriously, especially in cases where the parties involved had "bad blood”, he said.

Condominium security would also have to be enhanced. He said: "(Her demise) also highlights the desirability of ... identifying vulnerabilities, such as the one seen here, which allowed an intruder access into the condominium premises by simply stretching his hand to press the ‘gate release’ button at the side entrance to visit his malicious and sinister intent”. — TODAY