Financial pressure formed part of the background
The Court of Appeal recorded that Teo Ghim Heng had experienced a substantial decline in income and had accumulated debts by the end of 2016. He continued working and trying to improve the family's finances, but the household remained under serious financial strain.
On January 19, 2017, Zi Ning's school sought payment of overdue fees. The next morning, a dispute arose in the family's Woodlands flat. Teo later claimed that words spoken by Pei Shan caused him to lose self-control, but the courts ultimately rejected his attempt to rely on provocation.
Pei Shan and Zi Ning were killed in the family home
Teo killed Pei Shan and then Zi Ning on January 20, 2017. The appellate judgment records that he accepted the elements of murder under section 300(a) but argued that special exceptions should reduce his criminal liability.
Pei Shan was pregnant with the couple's second child. The High Court record states that a separate charge under section 316 of the Penal Code concerning the unborn child was stood down during the murder trial. After the two murder convictions, that charge did not become a third murder conviction. Crime by Region therefore keeps the legal record precise and counts this as one criminal case involving two murder victims.
The defences were rejected
At trial, Teo relied primarily on diminished responsibility and grave and sudden provocation. The High Court concluded that he had not established that he was suffering from major depressive disorder at the material time and rejected the diminished-responsibility defence.
The court also rejected provocation. It found that the evidence did not show the legally required loss of self-control and that Teo's conduct in relation to both killings was inconsistent with the proposed defence.
The Court of Appeal upheld both convictions
Teo appealed the two murder convictions and also raised constitutional arguments concerning the relevant Penal Code provisions. In Teo Ghim Heng v Public Prosecutor [2022] SGCA 10, the Court of Appeal rejected those arguments.
On February 23, 2022, the apex court dismissed the appeal and upheld both the convictions and sentences. The judgment expressly states that Teo had been convicted of murdering his wife, Choong Pei Shan, and his daughter, Teo Zi Ning.
Final procedural history
Reporting by The Straits Times states that Teo's clemency petitions were unsuccessful and that the sentence was carried out at Changi Prison Complex on April 16, 2025. That later event does not create a new case or alter the basis of the archive's classification: the two murder convictions were already final after the failed appeal.
Timeline
January 20, 2017: Choong Pei Shan and Teo Zi Ning are killed in the family's Woodlands flat.
January 28, 2017: relatives discover that something is wrong at the flat; police intervene and Teo is arrested.
November 2020: the High Court convicts Teo on two counts of murder and imposes the mandatory death sentence for the charges as framed.
February 23, 2022: the Court of Appeal dismisses his appeal and upholds both convictions and sentences.
April 16, 2025: Singapore authorities carry out the sentence after clemency petitions are unsuccessful.
Current status
The murders of Choong Pei Shan and Teo Zi Ning are Solved / Adjudicated. Teo Ghim Heng was convicted on both murder charges, and Singapore's Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal in 2022.