A 38-year-old woman, who is the director of City Funeral Singapore, was charged in court on Dec. 3 over the death of her ex-boyfriend in May 2020, during the circuit breaker period.

Alverna Cher Sheue Pin was charged with one count of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

She is accused of causing the death of Wee Jun Xiang, 32, on May 16.

The incident took place at Deck 4B of the multi-storey car park at Block 145A Bedok Reservoir Road between 1.44pm and 5.15pm.

Court documents were devoid of details of the incident.

But the police said on Dec. 2 that they arrested Cher and she was due in court.

The case was classified as an unnatural death then.

Wee was pronounced dead at the scene after he was found at the multi-storey car park along Bedok Reservoir Road.

Chinese media in Singapore had reported previously that Wee, a composer, died suddenly due to a heart attack.

Wee is also known as Sean.

His sudden death occurred two months after releasing a Mandarin song, You Are Gone. 

Court appearance

Cher was dressed in black when she appeared in court via video-link to receive her charge, CNA reported.

She told the judge she had to make three phone calls to her family and friends for money to be passed to her family and for a friend to help engage a lawyer.

She said her mother is a stroke patient.

"I'm a single mum and the sole breadwinner, so I really need to pass money to my parents," Cher said.

District Judge Brenda Tan said that the investigation officer will help to “notify the family and see to necessary arrangements”, according to Today.

This was despite the police prosecutor objecting to the application, citing ongoing investigations and that the accused is facing a capital charge and a raid was needed to be conducted to recover exhibits, CNA reported.

She will return to court on Dec 10.

If convicted of culpable homicide, she could be jailed for up to life, or jailed for up to 20 years and fined.

But she will be spared caning for this offence as women cannot be caned by law.

Background on Cher

Cher is a single mother with two daughters aged 13 and six, by her own admission in her blog posts on Dayre.

She is divorced from the older daughter’s father.

She subsequently broke up with the younger girl’s father.

This was after he was sentenced to jail shortly after she gave birth.

She took over City Funeral Singapore from him one month after it was founded in 2015.

Cher's Facebook profile indicated that she is the "lady boss" at the local funeral service company.

She is also the founder of the CARE planner certification programme, which provides services such as will-writing and "last-journey planning".

Her company was also involved in the funeral of Mediacorp actor Aloysius Pang, who died during a Singapore Armed Forces military exercise in New Zealand almost two years ago.

Cher has given multiple media interviews as a funeral director.

She ran a recruitment business in 2007 had also worked at MindChamps as an education coach.

All photos via Alverna Cher