Jan 17, 2020: Police report made, but officers failed to follow processes
More than four months after Megan was last seen at preschool on Sept 5, 2019, a community worker from Beyond Social Services accompanied Megan’s grandmother to lodge a police report.
The investigation officer assigned to the case assessed the matter to be a case of child discipline with low safety concern and told her officer-in-charge that she would attempt to contact and trace Megan’s mother.
The Singapore Police Force told the panel that the investigation officer had made this low-risk assessment as Beyond Social Services had earlier determined it to be a case of “excessive discipline” and that there were no other reports of suspected abuse.
The investigation officer also considered that Megan was with her biological mother.
After the police report was made, the officer-in-charge checked all the reports lodged during the shift and noticed Megan’s case.
The case was tagged under the investigation officer as one that had “an element of child discipline”.
The officer-in-charge intended to raise this report for discussion in the regular case review sessions by supervisors the following day.
However, after speaking to the investigation officer, who said she would follow up with contacting and tracing Foo, he decided not to do so.
Meanwhile, the investigation officer attempted to locate Megan and her mother for about two weeks.
She was subsequently deployed for COVID-19 related duties, and did not follow up on the case thereafter.
When reviewing the actions undertaken by the investigation officer and the officer-in-charge, SPF found that the investigation officer should have surfaced the case to her supervisor when she was unable to contact Megan’s mother.
This would have allowed the officer-in-charge to provide guidance on the investigation approach for such cases to ensure the case was followed up.
“Had Megan’s case been followed up on appropriately in Jan 2020, the likelihood of Megan being located earlier would have been higher,” the review panel said in its findings.
Feb 22, 2020: Megan dies from abuse
In the months leading up to her death, Megan suffered multiple forms of physical abuse under Foo and Wong, who also subjected her to humiliating acts, such as forcing her to wear her soiled diaper on her head.
Megan was also deprived of food, was not allowed to wear any clothes, and was made to sleep in a planter box outside the master bedroom, where she was exposed to the heat of the sun.
Investigations into Megan’s mother, Wong and a third person, Nouvelle Chua, revealed that Megan had been abused at a rented apartment at Guillemard Road and died on Feb 22, 2020.
Her death occurred a day after she was punched in the stomach by Wong.
Court documents showed that Megan’s body was later burned in a metal barrel and her ashes were scattered later that day in the sea at East Coast Park.
On Jul 20, Megan’s grandmother and her biological father lodged separate police reports.
On Jul 23, the police found Foo and Wong in their rented apartment. Both were arrested for murder with common intention.
Chua was arrested a day later for child abuse and consumption of controlled drugs.
Responding to queries from CNA, SPF said that when the second and third reports were made in July, the “red flags” were clearer.
There was concern over Foo and the deceased’s safety, and as Foo was warded in a hospital at that time, there was also concern as to who was taking care of the deceased, said SPF.
“The reports were also flagged by the duty (investigation officer) to the duty (officer-in-charge) and the case was escalated to the regular case review sessions with supervisors, as per established police procedures,” said SPF.
The case was then classified as a missing person’s case, with the officers following up on it immediately. Foo and Wong were found shortly after and arrested.
Foo was sentenced to 19 years’ jail on Apr 3, 2025 for allowing the death of a child, child abuse and impeding investigations by disposing of a corpse. Another charge of child abuse was taken into consideration.
Wong was sentenced to 30 years’ jail and 17 strokes of the cane for culpable homicide, impeding investigations by disposing of a corpse, drug trafficking and drug consumption. Another 11 charges, most of which were drug related, were taken into consideration.
