Murder of Lai Ying Xin

Lai Ying Xin
Lai Ying Xin, pictured before her death
Born	Lai Ying Xin 16 April 1992 Malaysia
Died	11 September 2008 (aged 16) Kulai, Johor, Malaysia
Cause of death	Strangulation
Nationality	Malaysian
Occupation(s)	Student Salesgirl (part time)
Known for	Victim of a kidnap-murder case
Parent(s)	Lai Then Song (father) Chia Siew Peh (mother)

On 11 September 2008, in Kulai, Johor, Malaysia, 16-year-old schoolgirl and salesgirl Lai Ying Xin (赖映兴 Lài Yìngxīng) was kidnapped and murdered by a group of four youths, who extorted a ransom from her family in spite of her death. The case became known as the "Kulai school beauty hostage-murder" (古来校花撕票案 gǔ lái xiào huā sī piào àn) in Malaysian Chinese newspapers, which extensively covered the case. The four youths, three of whom were below 18 years old while the fourth was 22, were subsequently arrested and charged with kidnapping and murdering Lai. The incident of Lai's kidnapping-turned-murder brought shock to the whole of Malaysia when it first came to light.^[1][2]

In 2011, the mastermind Teh Kim Hong (郑锦洪 Zhèng Jǐnhóng) was sentenced to death while two of Teh's co-defendants Leong Soon Long (梁顺龙 Liáng Shùnlóng) and Wong Soon Heng (黄顺兴 Huáng Shùnxīng), who were underaged at the time of the murder, were spared the gallows and detained indefinitely, and a fourth accused Wong Kah Wai (黄家伟 Huáng Jiāwěi), who was also underaged, was acquitted without his defence being called.^[3]

13 years later, after Malaysia abolished the mandatory death penalty and enabled murderers to face either death by hanging or a long prison sentence of 30 to 40 years instead, Teh filed an appeal to reduce his sentence, and in spite of the request of prosecutors and Lai's family for the death penalty, the Federal Court commuted Teh's death sentence to 40 years' imprisonment and 17 strokes of the cane in May 2024.^[4][5]