Sumiyati, a 53-year-old Indonesian domestic worker in Singapore, was sentenced to life imprisonment on July 29, 2026, after being convicted of murdering her 73-year-old employer, Mr Low Hoon Cheong, by suffocating him with a pillow in their Bishan flat on April 28, 2022.
The killing concluded a harrowing sequence of events that began when the domestic worker, desperate to cover heavy financial losses incurred through online romance and black magic scams, turned to stealing from the family that employed her. Singapore’s High Court delivered the mandatory sentence after Justice Mavis Chionh ruled that while the crime was a horrific tragedy, the offender did not exhibit a blatant disregard for human life or viciousness during the attack.
Caregiving Bonds and Unravelling Finances at Bishan Street 23
Sumiyati was hired in September 2019 by the daughter of Mr Low Hoon Cheong to provide caregiving services for her aging father, who suffered from mobility issues and lived in a flat at Block 222, Bishan Street 23, alongside his wife and daughter. According to the statement of agreed facts, the domestic helper maintained a warm and cooperative relationship with the household, earning praise for her gentle demeanor toward the elderly man.
However, beneath the surface of the quiet household, financial distress was mounting. Late in 2021, Sumiyati began soliciting salary advances and borrowing funds from her employers and a tenant, falsely claiming she needed to purchase a laptop for her daughter’s schooling and cover medical emergencies in Indonesia.
In reality, her defense lawyer, Mohamed Muzammil Mohamed, revealed that she had lost substantial sums to a series of online fraudsters. The financial ruin began in May 2020 after she transferred 25 million rupiah (S$1,790) to an online love scammer who subsequently vanished. Desperate to recover her losses, she fell victim to a second scammer claiming he could use black magic to force the first man to marry her, extracting another 60 million rupiah. A third fraudster, posing as an Indonesian embassy police officer in Singapore, promised to recover her money and punish the initial scammer for a fee of 650 million rupiah.
The Escalation to Theft and False Accusations
To fuel these remittances, Sumiyati began targeting her employer’s mother in April 2022, stealing three gold rings, a gold bracelet, and gold earrings from an unlocked drawer.
Instead of contacting law enforcement, the family chose to show compassion. The family decided not to file a police report because Sumiyati begged for another chance and they relied heavily on her assistance to care for Mr Low.
That clemency expired days later on April 28, 2022. While Mr Low was eating lunch, Sumiyati stole S$150 from his wallet, leaving the flat to remit the cash to Indonesia. Upon returning, she stole more money while he slept, heading out a second time to send off the funds. When Mr Low awoke around 3:00 PM, he questioned her about his wife’s missing necklace and urged her to confess before authorities were notified.
Angered by the false accusation and terrified that her earlier thefts of cash would be uncovered, Sumiyati concluded that the elderly man had to be eliminated.
The Suffocation and Arrest
Sumiyati rejected stabbing, pushing him from the flat, and strangling him by hand to avoid leaving incriminating physical evidence or cleaning up a violent struggle. Hearing his snoring at approximately 4:20 PM, she approached his bed and pressed a pillow over his face.
When the 73-year-old woke up and struggled, asking what she was doing, she leaned her body forcefully into the pillow, holding it down for roughly 30 minutes until he stopped moving. Checking a clock that read 5:00 PM, she stole S$70, both of Mr Low’s mobile phones, and a pair of earrings belonging to his wife before fleeing.
She attempted to sell the stolen phone and meet the third scammer—who had supposedly arrived in Singapore—but waited in vain for over an hour. Unsure how to reach the Indonesian embassy to surrender, she was arrested shortly after midnight on April 29, 2022, while standing on an overhead bridge in the Bishan-Toa Payoh area. Mr Low’s unresponsive body was discovered later that evening when his wife returned home past 8:00 PM.
