The man who is accused of murdering Ms Felicia Teo Wei Ling in 2007 now has legal representation, a district court heard on Thursday (24 December) morning.
Shashi Nathan of Withers KhattarWong, along with his team Ms Tania Chin and Ms Laura Yeo, will be defending Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee in the case which has been adjourned to 31 December.
Ahmad, now 35, is accused of having murdered Ms Teo who was 19 at a Marine Terrace flat on 30 June 2007. He is said to have committed the murder with another man, Ragil Putra Setia Sukmarahjana, now 32, who is still at large. The two men are believed to have been friends with Ms Teo.
In 2007, Ms Teo’s disappearance made headlines. After lodging a missing persons report with the police, investigations were conducted. However, the police classified the case as a missing person case as they could not find fact linking the two men—who were seen entering a lift with her at a Marine Terrace housing block the day she went missing— to her disappearance.
The men had told the police that Ms Teo left the flat on her own accord.
Not believing that she had run away, family and friends conducted their own search which eventually led to more than 200 people being involved in 2007. They ran advertisements and distributed fliers. They also search Geylang, Yishun and Woodlands in hopes of finding her.
Between then and now, the police have been regularly reviewing the case but came up empty. In July 2020, the case was referred to the Criminal Investigation Department. Officers in the department then uncovered new leads which led to the arrest of Ahmad of 15 December.
He was charged with murder in a district court on 17 December. The police are still searching for the other man as well as Ms Teo’s remains.
If convicted of murder, offenders face the death sentence.
