On 7 September 2005, in Serangoon, Singapore, 29-year-old Filipino maid Guen Garlejo Aguilar murdered her 26-year-old compatriot and best friend Jane Parangan La Puebla by strangulation, after the two women got into a heated quarrel over a S$2,000 debt La Puebla owed Aguilar. After the killing, Aguilar hid the body for two days before she dismembered it and abandoned the two bags containing La Puebla's body parts at Orchard Road and MacRitchie Reservoir. Aguilar was arrested twelve hours after the discovery of the body parts by passers-by in these two locations. Originally charged with murder, Aguilar, who suffered from depression at the time of the offence, managed to avoid the death penalty after she pleaded guilty and received a sentence of ten years' in jail for a reduced charge of manslaughter.
Discovery of body parts On the afternoon of 9 September 2005 at 1 pm, 41-year-old Malaysian cleaner Maria Yee Marutham was doing her work when she found a sports bag nearby a mosaic wall outside Orchard MRT station. As Maria searched the bag, she discovered the severed head of a young woman, as well as the severed arms and legs packed in two separate black trash bags. Five hours after the horrific discovery, in the evening of the same day at 6 pm, a 41-year-old civil servant named Alvin Lim Seng Leong made another grisly discovery when he chanced upon a black trolley bag at MacRitchie Reservoir, and the bag itself contained the torso of a woman. The police were informed of the two discoveries of body parts in both Orchard Road and the reservoir, and the disposal of these body parts at two openly public spaces had baffled the police investigators. Based on investigations and the forensic examinations of Dr Wee Keng Poh, the senior forensic pathologist of the Health Sciences Authority, the body parts found at these two different places belonged to the same person. Fingerprints recovered from the hands enabled the police to identify the victim, who was a 26-year-old Filipino maid named Jane Parangan La Puebla, who was reported missing by her employer a day before the discovery of her dismembered corpse. The case of her death, according to Dr Wee's report, was strangulation, as there were bruises found on the neck of the deceased. At the time of her death, La Puebla was married and had a nine-year-old son, and her mother was still alive. Her father, a soldier, died in Patikul, Jolo when she was three years old, and hence both La Puebla and a sister was raised by her father's relatives in her hometown at Bagabag, the Philippines.
Investigation and arrest The police classified the case as murder, and they swiftly investigated the death of La Puebla. Based on the torn newspaper pages wrapped around the severed body parts, the police discovered a bearing the name and address of an Indian immigrant living in a condominium at Serangoon. The police managed to trace the address, and they arrived at the condominium, where the Indian man and his wife, as well as their maid resided in. Soon after the police's arrival, the household's Filipino maid Guen Garlejo Aguilar, who was the best friend of the victim, was arrested on 10 September 2005, twelve hours after the body parts were discovered. The 29-year-old Filipino maid was charged with murder the next day. The police suspected Aguilar had killed La Puebla inside the condominium before dismembering her, and a 18 cm meat cleaver was also retrieved as evidence. At the time of her arrest, Aguilar was married with two sons, and was a resident of Ilocos Sur, Northern Luzon back in the Philippines. Her husband Edwin Aguilar and relatives rushed to Singapore upon receiving news of Aguilar's arrest for the grisly murder, which made headlines in both Singapore and the Philippines and shocked both countries at that time. It happened so that three months before in the same year of 2005, another high-profile murder and dismemberment case happened at Singapore's Kallang, where 50-year-old Leong Siew Chor strangled his 22-year-old Chinese girlfriend Liu Hong Mei and butchered the corpse into seven pieces. Leong was sentenced to death and hanged for the cold-blooded murder on 30 November 2007 after a highly reported 16-day trial. Many people suspected the Orchard Road murder to be a copy-cat of the Kallang River body parts murder, and compared the coincidental similarities between both cases, including the birthdays of the killers (both born on 19 April but of different years) in these two cases. Aguilar was ordered on 23 September to undergo psychiatric evaluation while in remand facing trial for murder. These tests were completed in October 2005. Criminal lawyer Shashi Nathan was engaged to defend Aguilar during her upcoming trial. There were fears from the Filipino public and government that Aguilar would be put to death for murder in Singapore (since murder was punishable by death in the city-state), because back on 17 March 1995, a Filipino maid named Flor Contemplacion was hanged in Changi Prison for murdering a four-year-old boy and another Filipino maid. The execution of Contemplacion for the double murders sparked protests from the Filipino public and severely damaged the democratic ties between Singapore and the Philippines. Singaporean officials reassured that Aguilar had been receiving fair treatment by the Singapore authorities and Philippine Ambassador Belen Anota advised the Filipino public and media to not recklessly report or speculate on the case and add sensation to the case, and it was added that they should allow the law to run its course and sent a reminder that any Filipinos in Singapore should abide by the country's laws and regulations. Representatives from the Filipino government were also sent to lend support for Aguilar during the court proceedings. The case itself was also shocking to Aguilar's employers, who reportedly experienced sleepless nights since the murder took place at their home, and they contemplated the possibility of moving out. The body of Jane Parangan La Puebla was flown back to the Philippines on 25 September 2005 after the completion of forensic examinations, and her family retrieved it for burial. Buddhist monks were also invited to make final prayers and rituals for La Puebla at the Orchard Road area where her body parts were found.
Aguilar's confession
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