Boon Lay stabbing victim was 'my happy pill,' says friend
Close friend of victim in Boon Lay stabbing says they had reconnected only recently
For two years in secondary school, they were inseparable.
But they drifted apart after attending different polytechnics.
Then a few months ago, they reconnected.
On Thursday evening, Miss Soh Yuan Lin told Miss Priscilla Siah that she was lucky to have a friend like her in her life.
"She told me that she was very happy to have rekindled our friendship, after drifting apart for a few years, and would never let (it) go," Miss Siah, 24, a tutor at an enrichment centre, told The New Paper.
Little did Miss Siah know that just hours later, her close friend would be dead.
Miss Soh, 23, was allegedly stabbed by a 26-year-old man outside his HDB flat in Boon Lay Drive on Thursday night.
This happened moments after neighbours heard Miss Soh and the man quarrelling in the common corridor at about 8.10pm.
The two were believed to be in a relationship.
By the time neighbours came out to investigate, Miss Soh was seen lying on the ground in a pool of blood.
Paramedics rushed her to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, where she died three hours later.
The man was arrested and is expected to be charged with murder today.
Miss Siah choked up in tears as she recalled how she found out her friend was dead.
She said: "I heard the news from a friend. We were shocked and in disbelief. For this to happen to someone our age, it's surreal and hard to swallow.
"We had plans to meet up, but I guess that isn't going to happen."
Miss Siah first got to know Miss Soh in primary school but it wasn't until Secondary 3 that they grew close.
"We became inseparable. We were just one register number apart and we did everything together. We sat beside each other during exams, we studied together and we went everywhere together," she said.
She fondly recounted how they would save up their weekly pocket money so they could afford a meal at Mos Burger every Friday.
Miss Soh would also always cheer her up, said Miss Siah.
She said: "Once, I flunked a social studies paper and cried, but Yuan Lin didn't comfort me.
"Instead, she secretly took a pen from our teacher's pencil case and gave it to me because she felt I had wasted my ink on his paper. That was her quirky way of cheering me up."
DRIFTED APART
They drifted apart after they went to different polytechnics.
Miss Soh then went on to study business at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), said Miss Siah, who went to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology at SIM.
It was only a few months ago that they reconnected.
"A friend had asked me why I was not as close to Yuan Lin any more and it hit me. She was such a big part of my life so we made the effort to reconnect."
She described Miss Soh, a former air stewardess who went on to work at Marina Bay Sands, as happy-go-lucky, cheerful and fiercely loyal.
"She lived in the moment. She was always so carefree.
"She was my happy pill and was always a phone call away. I will miss the long walks and hours on the phone with her," she said.
Miss Soh is survived by her parents and a younger brother.
Her father told reporters outside the mortuary yesterday morning that he did not wish to comment on the incident.
Miss Siah said she had never met the man who was arrested and did not know much about him.
"It hasn't fully sunk in that she's gone, but hating him won't bring her back.
"What she would want now is for her friends and family to stay united," she said.
I heard the news from a friend. We were shocked and in disbelief. For this to happen to someone our age, it's surreal and hard to swallow.
- Miss Priscilla Siah, 24, on learning about the death of Miss Soh Yuan Lin, 23
There was so much blood on her (Miss Soh Yuan Lin), around her, that I couldn't make out where the wound was.
- Mr Su, a neighbour
Neighbours heard loud argument
It was an argument that turned deadly.
Neighbours told The New Paper that they heard Miss Soh Yuan Lin and the 26-year-old man arguing loudly outside his 11th-storey flat at Block 268B, Boon Lay Drive, on Thursday night.
One resident, a repairman in his 50s who wanted to be known only as Mr Su, said he was watching television in his flat at about 8.10pm when he heard a man and a woman quarrelling at the common corridor.
He went out to investigate as the commotion persisted and he found the man's mother screaming for help and for someone to call the police.
He saw Miss Soh, who was clad in a T-shirt and shorts, lying in a pool of blood near the common rubbish chute near the man's four-room flat.
"There was so much blood on her, around her, that I couldn't make out where the wound was," he said in Mandarin.
The man was seen pacing up and down with an anxious look on his face, he said.
Shocked by what he had seen, Mr Su rushed back to his unit and called the police.
Madam Yang, 36, a housewife, was in her flat at the other end of the corridor when she heard a high-pitched scream.
A police spokesman said they received a call for assistance at 8.15pm and officers found a 23-year-old woman lying motionless at the scene.
A Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) spokesman said the woman was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, where she died at 11.15pm.TNP understands that Miss Soh suffered stab wounds to her neck.
KNIFE RECOVERED
A cleaner who declined to be named told TNP that police recovered a 15cm-long jackknife from the rubbish chute on the first storey that night.
The suspect's father returned home at about 4am on Friday. He told Shin Min Daily News that he was not at home during the incident.
"This was a matter between them young people. I don't know what happened," he said.
Mr Su, who has lived at Boon Lay Drive for more than 10 years, said that Miss Soh and the man were a loving couple and that Thursday evening was the first time he had heard them quarrelling.
While he said he did not know much about Miss Soh, Mr Su said that the man, who lived with his parents and older brother, was polite and courteous and would greet neighbours whenever they met along the corridor.
When TNP told Mr Su that Miss Soh had died from her injuries, he gasped and looked distraught.
"I don't have much of an impression of her, but I feel sorry for her. It's such a pity. She was so young," he said.
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