Woman, 35, who hacked adoptive father to death in Sengkang loses appeal against 18-year jail sentence

The woman who hacked her adoptive father to death in their Sengkang flat in 2022 has lost her appeal against her 18-year jail sentence.

Tan Qiu Yan, 35, sought a lighter sentence of 12 to 15 years instead.

She argued her motive for the attack was because her father had wanted to kill her.

According to CNA, the Court of Appeal rejected this claim, pointing out that she had not previously brought it up.

When Tan was sentenced on Jul. 14, 2025, it was found that she suffered from a delusional disorder and believed her father, 67-year-old Tan Ah Bang, would kick her out of their flat and leave her homeless.

The court has since upheld that her core motivation was a belief that the older man was preventing her from owning a flat promised to her by her adoptive mother, who died months before the killing.

A judge added that after buying a chopper, Tan was able to delay her decision to kill her father for two months, proving she was able to control her actions, reported CNA.

2022 killing

Background

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Tan was adopted by Koh Li Hua and Tan Ah Bang, when she was less than a year old.

Before Koh died of lung cancer on Aug. 29, 2022, she promised her daughter, then 31, that she would leave her share of the flat to her.

Arguments between father and daughter soon began, including during Koh's wake, when Tan and her father quarrelled over financial assets multiple times.

On one occasion, Ah Bang got angry and told his daughter that she had to move out.

She retorted that her mother had left the flat to her and began to cry.

Ah Bang relented, and promised his daughter that he would transfer the whole house to her.

Housing dispute

The younger Tan did not trust her father and came to believe he would chase her out of the house so he could have the whole house to himself.

On Sep. 4, 2022, a few days after the funeral, she purchased the biggest chopper she could find from the FairPrice outlet at Nex.

She intended to use the 18cm-long weapon to kill her father if he did not keep his promise.

After the funeral ended, Ah Bang made an appointment with his lawyers to settle matters pertaining to Koh's estate.

They subsequently realised that Ah Bang had automatically become the sole owner of the flat.

On Nov. 2, 2022, Tan asked her father when he was free to go to the Housing and Development Board office to add her as a co-owner.

But he demurred, and they began to quarrel.

Ah Bang scolded her for not telling him she'd received her mother's Central Provident Fund monies, and for going to check on the status of Koh's investment.

He also chided her for meddling with household matters, and for stopping him from throwing Koh's belongings away.

In the midst of the argument, Ah Bang said he would not leave her the flat after his death, threatening to donate it instead.

At that moment, Tan considered killing her father with a pair of scissors on the table.

She decided against it as she did not think they would be sharp enough, but continued to contemplate his death.

She also considered merely injuring him, to scare him into transferring ownership of the flat to her.

But she dismissed this in the end, as she believed she would be sent to prison, while Ah Bang would still get to keep the flat.

After lunch the next day, she began to practise using the chopper.

She also tested its sharpness on a banana.

Killing

Tan decided to give her father "one last chance".

On the afternoon of Nov. 3, 2022, she went to the bathroom, where he was scrubbing her work uniforms.

She asked if he would share ownership of the flat 50-50 with her but he refused and told her not to bring up the matter anymore.

Tan then decided to kill him, plotting to catch him by surprise in the common toilet.

After dinner that evening, she waited for him to take a shower.

The moment he opened the door, Tan swung the chopper at his neck.

He tried to say something to her, but she ignored him.

Over the next 10 minutes, she hacked at his neck at least 45 to 50 times.

She continued to hack at him even after he fell backwards and became motionless.

By the end of her onslaught, the chopper had become blunt, and the blade was chipped.

After murdering her father, Tan cleaned up the mess and changed into new clothes as she was covered in blood.

She also watched anime and looked through photos of herself as a child with her parents before finally calling the police.

"My father passed away at home. Can police come please," she said over the phone.

Appeal

Tan pleaded guilty in July 2025 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

She was then sentenced to 18 years' jail, with the judge calling the killing a "shocking and brutal act of violence" against her adoptive father.

According to CNA, Tan submitted a letter of appeal arguing against the judge's claim that her father doted on her as he cooked for and washed her clothes.

These were "not the truth", she said.

She also wrote that she had hoped to have a "happy ending" by becoming closer to her father after her mother's death, but this did not happen as he loved money instead of his family.

The Public Defender's Office sought a lower sentence of 12 to 15 years, reflecting a higher degree of mental impairment.

He argued that Tan had interpreted her father's kindness right before the killing as his treating her well before killing her.

She also believed he had wanted to kill her to keep the disputed assets, the lawyer claimed.

However, the Deputy Public Prosecutors called for the judge to uphold the 18-year sentence as a reflection of her culpability and decision to take her father's life, despite the case being a tragic one.

There was also nothing wrong in principle with the sentence, they said.