Xavier Yap Jung Houn

On 21 January 2022, at a playground in Greenridge Crescent, located in Singapore's Upper Bukit Timah, 11-year-old twin brothers Ethan Yap E Chern (叶育成 Yè Yùchéng) and Aston Yap Kai Shern (叶凯胜 Yè Kǎishèng), who were both diagnosed with autism, were murdered by their 48-year-old father Xavier Yap Jung Houn (叶俊宏 Yè Jùnhóng), who strangled the both of them to death before he attempted to commit suicide but failed to.

Yap was charged with the double murder, which shocked the nation at that time.

Yap, whose murder charges were reduced due to clinical depression, was reported to have killed the boys due to his suicidal thoughts and his belief that his sons would be neglected and unloved by their mother upon his death and thus wanted to kill himself and the twins to remove themselves as burdens on his wife.

Yap was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment in August 2023, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter at the High Court.

Ethan Yap E Chern and Aston Yap Kai Shern, both twins, were born on 14 October 2010 to their parents Xavier Yap Jung Houn and Anna Seah Puay Hiang, the latter who was previously married with one daughter, who lived together with the Yaps.

Yap, a university graduate who formerly worked as a manager at the Ministry of Defence, had once studied for a doctorate at England.

When both Ethan and Aston were two years old, Yap and his wife suspected that the brothers were possibly autistic after noticing certain signs of their behaviour.

In May 2017, at the age of six, the boys were formally diagnosed with global developmental delay and autism spectrum disorder.

According to sources, Seah was unable to accept the boys' condition and despite the doctor's recommendation to enrol the boys in a special education school, the boys were enrolled at the age of nine in Primary 1 at a mainstream primary school located in the Eng Kong estate area while they were still non-verbal.

The boys encountered learning difficulties throughout their schooling, and so, the boys' mother and maid would each accompany one child to classes.

Whenever the mother was unavailable, one of the twins would not be present for school.

Reportedly, Yap's wife did not allow her husband to have a say in decisions on which school the boys should attend, or their school activities.

It was reported that Yap had a good relationship with his sons.

Yap would help the brothers to prepare their daily necessities and gave them whatever they wanted, and he would not resort to physical force whenever he was disciplining the twins.

Yap also played a more major role in their studies and often make time to spend with his sons after they enrolled in primary school.

However, in around 2019 or 2020, Yap became increasingly concerned about his sons' welfare.

In 2021, Yap's wife, who allegedly had an affair, began to grow more prone to anger and allegedly became more abusive towards the twins, and it only added to his concerns.

In December 2021, Yap began to harbour suicidal thoughts, and he even bought an ice pick with plans to take his own life.

At the start of 2022, the boys were about to be assessed for their suitability to remain in their mainstream primary school, and this turn of events caused Yap's wife to become more depressed and infuriated at her sons.

Assuming this as a sign that his wife had given up on the boys, Yap began harbouring serious thoughts of killing his sons before he commit suicide, so as to unburden his wife.

Yap also feared for his sons, fearing that they would become ostracized should he and his wife die one day, and it became another factor behind his motive of murdering his sons on 21 January 2022.

On 21 January 2022, Xavier Yap decided to carry out his murder plot at a playground near his house in Greenridge Crescent in Upper Bukit Timah, where he often bring his sons to play.

The area itself was said to be near a forest and an open field, which was also why he chose that place.

At about 4.45pm, Yap armed himself with an ice pick and he drove his sons to the playground in his car.

For the first ten minutes, both Ethan and Aston played at the playground, before Yap proceeded to bring the brothers one after another into a canal near the open field, located in the area where the playground was.

Yap first laid his hands on Ethan, using a stick to press against Ethan's neck before he strangled the boy to his death, and he even placed Ethan's head underwater at the canal itself.

Throughout the murder of Ethan, Aston was watching quietly on the side and after his brother died, Aston met essentially the same fate as Ethan, with Yap strangling Aston to death before he also submerged the boy's head into the canal water to make sure he died.

According to an autopsy report by Dr George Paul, the boys died from strangulation.

After the boys were dead, Yap attempted to kill himself several times, using either the ice pick, a tree branch and a rock.

However, none of his attempts were successful, and as a result of these failures, Yap decided to put up an act that he was the victim of an attack, and would lie to the police about it.

Yap believed that this lie would be disputed by the evidence and it would give the impression that he had no remorse, and he could be given the death penalty for murder as a wish to join his sons in the afterlife.

After failing to contact his wife, Yap contacted the police and lied that he had been attacked and needed their help to find his sons, whose bodies he adjusted to face upwards while for the police's arrival.

Additionally, Yap went back to the canal area near the playground and shouted for help.

Eventually, after the arrival of police, Yap told them that he had been attacked and that someone else had killed his sons.

This led to the police investigating the canal for clues.

Yap described the fictitious attacker as a male in his 40s and tan-looking, which prompted the police's Gurkha contingent to conduct an extensive manhunt in the nearby area to search for possible leads to locate the "attacker".

Residents of the nearby area were also interviewed by police to seek any witnesses of possible suspecious sightings to investigate the murders.

Yap was subsequently taken to hospital to receive treatment for his self-inflicted injuries.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Tan Boon Kok became in charge of the investigations, and after receiving Yap's word that an unknown attacker was responsible for hurting him and abducting his sons, he investigated and found that Yap's account did not add up, and through further investigations, Yap became the prime suspect and he gradually confessed that he indeed murdered his twin sons, which led to the arrest of Yap for the double murder.

The boys were cremated at Mandai Crematorium on 24 January 2022.