On 13 September 2019, the country was shocked by the discovery of skeletal remains of a baby at Kg Salambigar. The following day, it was reported that a married couple has been arrested in connection to the discovery and that the victim was a 5 months old baby girl. [Case Ongoing]. As bizarre as it may sound, this is not the first time in the country that innocent babies / toddlers became victims of senseless violence or gross negligence that led to deaths, and certainly not the worst so far. These coward monsters have been walking among us for quite some time now, with the first known case happening as early as 1999. Warning: The worst case will make you sick to the stomach.

Here are some of the more recent cases:

Date: 26 August 2019
Victim: 1 year 4 month old girl
Crime Location: RPN Kg Lambak Kanan
Cause of Death: Injuries due to physical abuse (slapped, bitten, pinched, etc).
How the crime was uncovered: Alerted by medics
Person(s) Responsible: The kid’s parents (39 year old father and 36 year old mother), local, both on meth.
Sentence: 4 years imprisonment for the mother while the husband is yet to be sentenced.

Date: 20 December 2018
Victim: 2 year old boy
Crime Location: Lumut
Cause of Death: Injuries due to physical abuse
Person(s) Responsible: 34 year old boyfriend of the boy’s mother, uniformed personnel, local

Date: 17 August 2016
Victim: 3 year old girl
Crime Location: Perpindahan Mentiri
Cause of Death: Multiple internal injuries due to physical abuse – thrown, punched, slapped, kicked
How the crime was uncovered: Alerted by medics
Person(s) Responsible: The girl’s 29 year old uncle, local
Sentence: 13 years imprisonment, 8 strokes of the cane

Date: 13 September 2013
Victim: 3 year old girl
Crime Location: Everywhere, including in the car. Body was disposed in the bushes by the roadside at Ulu Kuala Balai
Cause of Death: Multiple injuries due to physical abuse.
Person(s) Responsible: The girl’s “foster” parents. They acquired the girl by conning the kid’s biological parents.
Sentence: 16 years imprisonment, 10 strokes of the cane for the man; 8 years imprisonment for the woman

Looking at the ages of the victims, they were 3 year olds and below. These are the period where they are at the mercy of their guardians. Had they gotten the chance to attend pre-school, their teachers would have noticed telltale signs of physical abuse at home, and the deaths could have been prevented.

It was reported that the 5 months old baby girl whose skeletal remains were recently discovered in Kg Salambigar was killed sometimes in May 2018. It is heartbreaking that no one looked for her, no one missed her. Her grandparents, uncles, aunties, perhaps. At least, someone other than her parents must have known about her existence and thus would have noticed about her disappearance. But, there was none. Really sad…

Family members of the perpetrators could be biased and prone to be in denial and turn a blind eye on signs of physical abuse to the child. This is where family friends and neighbours can step up to the plate. They can quickly report their suspicions to the police or the Family Services helpline number. But, how many of the public are well aware of this social responsibility and know what numbers to call? With the clearly increasing number of cases, more need be done to increase the public awareness.

Many, if not all of the perpetrators are within the 20-40 years age bracket. What went wrong? Why are they so messed up? What could explain their short fuses and acting out their rage in violence on the helpless infants. Drugs can be one of the explanation for the aggressive behaviours. In two of the recent cases mentioned above, it was alleged that the perpetrators were using drugs. Go figure.

Mental disorder or depression can also explain the lack of judgement. Unlike drugs abuse, the presence of mental disorder can’t be identified through blood or urine tests.  No one can say that they don’t have it without undergoing proper mental evaluation. A seemingly okay person can mask a mental disorder which can unravel into violence anytime. This can become easily triggered if combined with financial hardship, low self esteem, and other screw ups in the person’s life.

This brings me to the worst ever infanticide case in the country. Where do I even begin… Caught Off Gut

27 March 2000 might have started like other ordinary Mondays for the Lexus manager of Gadong’s NBT showroom, until she discovered five brand new cars – 2 from inside the showroom, the other 3 parked outside (1xLexus LS400, 3xLexus IS200, 1xToyota Hilux) were missing (worth about half a million) when she came in that morning. There was no sign of forced entry. From this, police immediately established that the crime could have involved someone from the inside. Otherwise, how else would the thieves know that the establishment has no security guard, no alarm system installed and that it only has surveillance camera in the showroom which was only functional during office hours. The cars also couldn’t possibly be driven away without their keys which the thieves seemed to already have in their possession.

This thing happened at a time when vehicle thefts were getting more rampant in the country. The stolen cars were usually quickly transported across the border where they will be broken down to parts. But this was the first time that new cars were targeted and I don’t believe that the new cars were stolen for their parts. Brunei being so small, with nowhere to hide such big-sized loot, raised the question as to what the thieves were planning to do with the 6 new cars or whether they have actually thought about what they would do with them. It sounded more like a half-cooked plot executed badly.

The most likely intention would be to make some bucks by selling the cars to a syndicate. However, to do this, the thieves must have connection with transnational stolen car syndicate. There is certainly a good market for stolen luxury cars in the region, in Myanmar and Cambodia for example, and the syndicate is very proficient in discreetly transporting the stolen cars across national boundaries to wherever their intended destinations would be.

One scenario for the fate of the cars stolen in Brunei would be that they are smuggled  overland into East Malaysia then into West Kalimantan, then from there they will be transferred into containers at the Pontianak Port for shipping towards the route to their eventual destinations where their “customers” await. Thailand is a known transit point for stolen cars where from there they are smuggled overland to Cambodia, Laos, all the way up to Myanmar. If the stolen cars reached Peninsular Malaysia, they can also be transported across to a Singapore port then shipped off to Australia and New Zealand. The possibility is endless. Interestingly, from my research (google search), the Toyota Hilux is among the top commonly stolen vehicles in Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. The stolen Hiluxs have even made their way to the hands of ISIS in the Middle East. Wow!

It was later revealed that the theft was a teamwork of 5 locals – 4 in their 30s (thieves A, B, C and D) and one 49 year old (thief E) – and one Indonesian man (thief F). Thief E is the manager of a security firm who is a retired military officer, although he was only implicated for assisting to conceal the stolen vehicles, after-the-fact. Two of them (Thieves C and D) are his employees, a maintenance man and a driver of the security firm. Thief C is an ex police officer. Thief A, alleged to be the mastermind, is a military officer who managed to evade capture for almost a month after the theft. Thief F was never apprehended as he quickly left the country after the incident. Like Thief E, Thief B is also a retired military personnel and was only implicated for assisting to conceal the stolen vehicles.

Of the Lexus cars being already sold in the country at that time, only 4 of them were blue and the Lexus Sales Representative knew exactly who the 4 buyers were and their respective plate numbers. Im sure the thieves were ignorant about this fact given that Thief C was later spotted driving the stolen blue Lexus by the Lexus Sales Representative (What are the odds??). This led to his arrest on 29 March 2000. It didn’t take quite a while for Thief C to spill the beans leading to the rest falling like dominoes.

By 30 March 2000, all the stolen vehicles were recovered. 3 of the Lexus were recovered at Thief A’s house. Thief B was later acquitted of the charges against him and was set free. Testimonies at the trial also revealed that Thief F (who was never arrested) acted as “lookout” during the crime and that Thief A had the keys to the cars and the showroom sliding door (Interesting..). It was also revealed (or alleged, rather) that two NBT officials were complicit in the carnapping.

In August 2000, thieves A, C, D and E were all found guilty of their respective charges. Thief A was given a sentence of 18 months in jail. Thieves C and D were each sentenced to four years imprisonment and one stroke of the rattan (seriously? just one stroke?). Thief E was given a sentence of 6 months in jail.

The lack of thoughtfulness to at least stage a forced break-in indicated how novice they were as thieves and to hide the stolen cars at your own home is beyond belief. Their ignorance about “inside crime 101” led to their arrests hardly a week after the theft. It was really an anti-climax to what seemed set to be the most daring carnapping act in the country.

For those who never knew that there was a brothel in Brunei way back when, so now you will know.

Introducing Papa Soon, then 57 year old, who was in the year 2000, charged with operating / managing a short-lived brothel (5-16 January 2000) at Kg Manggis Satu, Jalan Muara where 5 foreign ladies (from Indonesia and Thailand, ages 22-36) offering sex services were headquartered. The brothel was uncovered during a raid by the Immigration Department, codenamed “Operation Coming Soon”

In the house, the Johns will enjoy some drinks, karaoke, chit chats and later sex with the ladies. The ladies will get a $5 commission for every drink sold and Papa Soon will take half of the proceeds from the sex. For $150, the men can take the ladies home for the sex part of the service.

In court, Papa Soon pleaded not guilty and represented himself, cross-examining the girls when they testified against him. Papa Soon said that he was framed and that the girls accused him of forcing them to be prostitutes in order to get lighter sentences. In June 2000, Papa Soon was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment. Seven months later, in January 2001, his sentence was reduced to 3 years and 6 months following his appeal. He dodged the rattan as he was above 50 years of age.

The funny thing was, despite the sensational Papa Soon case, years later, in 2013, there was another attempt to run a brothel in the country, this time in STKRJ Kg Sungai Buloh, when a local man allowed his house to be rented by Indonesian prostitutes (for $10 per gig) to conduct their business transextions. The man was later convicted and sent to jail for 6 months. This case created less buzz because the prostitutes were freelancers and that the man was not involved in pimping them out.

No further (known) brothel attempts after that (at least not until Oct this year), but this did not stop prostitutes to make a living here. From Indonesians and Thais, prostitutes from Vietnam and China began to take interest in the Brunei market. They would now skip involving locals in their business model, came to the country on a tourist or visitor visa, stayed at cheap hotels ($30-$40 a night), used their fellow country-mates as their pro-bono marketing executives, charged $100 or so for sex per session (enough to cover the room’s rent).

What worst could happen anyway. Get away with it, they will make a good sum of money. If they got busted, they will spend some time in jail then return home. No biggie.

In Oct this year, two Thai siblings were jailed for hosting prostitution services at their rented house from Feb to Mar 2019. During the period, they had “taken in 11 Thai women aged between 35 and 43 at their rented house in Kg Kianggeh and that they had pimped the women for prostitution”. Sounds like running a brothel to me. There was no reference to the word “brothel” this time around hencewhy the activity and arrest managed to slip through the public attention. The Thai lady was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months imprisonment while her brother received 21 months.

Now, lets do the math. One prostitute can entertain up to 12 men per day, meaning she can earn 12x$100 = $1,200 daily. We have 11 prostitutes, meaning we are talking about 11x$1,200 = $13,200 worth of sex profits per day. Now, multiply that by say 50 days of transextions = $660,000. For use of their house, the siblings may charge a minimum of 10% of that = $66,000. These money will be remitted to their home country on a daily basis. Knowing how busy body the country’s population is, Im sure they knew well that their “business” would be short-lived. But, then again, like I said…what worst could happen anyway.

For a small country like Brunei, security is everything. It doesn’t matter if major threats to the people’s wellbeing do not exist (yet), complacency has proven to bring dire circumstances. Don’t ever think that the things that happened in other countries won’t happen in Brunei. The longer we drag our feet on tackling security lacks or lack of preparedness, the harder we will fall to our knees when brought face to face with real terror.

In 2011, a combination of three ticking timebombs exploded at the same time, awakening the sleeping Bruneians, bringing the security enforcement personnel on their toes, running around like headless chicken, two with bloodied faces. All these were triggered by one man – Yusup @ Malik Gerhana.

Malik Gerhana was one of the about 120,000 foreign workers in Brunei. Looking at the figure, 120,000 doesn’t sound that many if compared to neighbouring Malaysia who has about 2 millions foreign workers. However, if we do the maths, the foreign workers in Malaysia only make up only 6% of the country’s population, while in Brunei, they make up a whooping 28% of the country’s tiny population. These foreign workers provide the skills that Bruneians don’t have or fill the positions that Bruneians are too lazy or too proud to do. I don’t see this dynamics will change anytime soon. [Ticking timebomb No.1].

While not dismissing their contributions to the country’s human resource needs, these foreign workers came from countries that existed way longer than Brunei, countries that have seen and experienced it all – extreme poverty, street protests, demonstrations, separatism, gangsterism, all kinds of crimes. Because of this, they are more “battle hardened” and have different life skills and psyche than you and me Bruneians. This has nothing to do with race, just mere facts of developments. As the number of foreign workers swelled, it was just a matter of time before one bad apple exported daring crime acts into the country.

Meet Malik Gerhana from Lombok, known in his hometown as Yusup or Usup, the gangster who came to Brunei as a foreign worker. On 20 April 2011, Malik, together with his 6 fellow Indonesians, later referred as the Usop Gang, armed with machetes, committed a gang robbery on a house at Kg Sungai Teraban in Kuala Belait. Well, before this, we did have armed gang robberies. What were bonkers about the Usop Gang robbery were that they had no intention to sneak in like a cat burglar, quietly pick a door lock, saw the security grille or pry open a window like other housebreakers. They chose the noisiest way there was – break down the door using a gas cylinder then forced the occupants at parang-point to surrender their valuables including the keys to their cars. They took best care to conceal their identity by wearing masks and gloves, but their accent gave away their nationality. They were in and out in just in a matter of minutes, leaving the victims badly shaken but lucky to be alive.

By morning, thanks to WhatsApp, everyone was alerted about the incident. The police conducted roadblocks looking for the suspects but by that time enough time had passed that they could have been long gone across the border. Kg Sungai Teraban, where the robbery occurred is only less than 10 km away from the border with Sarawak. The Sungai Tujoh border post opens at 0600 am, they could have crossed the border like other innocent border crossers well before the border post people got the alert. There are also convenient mousetrails that they can use which would only take them about 5 hours walking across, by vehicle even faster. [Ticking timebomb No.2].

Mousetrails or jalan tikus are clandestine routes to enter and exit the country by land. There are many of them out there. No passport needed, no custom inspection. A number of them can even be used by vehicles, calling them mousetrails is an understatement. These trails can even be seen on google earth. They are used by smugglers, fugitives, villagers visiting their relatives or going to kedai runcit over the border, and god knows who else. With the existence of the mousetrails, coming in and out of the country undetected is notoriously easy and there is no way of knowing who have slipped through and are now hiding or lurking in our homeland.

Im sure that the police knew well that their roadblocks and hunts were just gonna find dust as the robbers might have already crossed the border to Miri. So they alerted the Malaysian police to be on a look out for the criminals. Given that the robbers wore masks and gloves, im assuming that the police didn’t have much to go on with except for the obvious clue – 7 guilty looking Indonesian men with robbery loot in their possession. The Malaysian police did find and apprehend them on 22 April 2011, two days after the robbery, as they tried to cross over from Sarawak to Kalimantan, Indonesia. Why they were sticking together, all 7 travelling in one van is beyond me. They were handed to the Brunei police who announced the arrests in a press conference much to the relief of the nervous public. The public could then sleep peacefully at night. Or could they??

It was later revealed that 3 out of 7 of them have been involved in a series of robberies in the country in 2010 whereby that year, 6 robberies were reported. It was unclear how many of the 6 that they were involved in and if Malik Gerhana was one of the 3 mentioned. The 7 were then brought to court on 25 April 2011 where a court date for second hearing was set for 9 May 2011. On 9 May 2011, only 6 of them turned up. Just like a plot twist in an action movie, Malik Gerhana managed to escape!

At the early morning of 9 May 2011, around 0520 am, Malik Gerhana beat the crap out of two CID personnel, ninja-ed his way out of the CID HQ at Jalan Ong Sum Ping and ran off never to be seen again (at least by the Brunei police). He was wearing the orange detainee suit which could have some bloodstains on them. Here is what I think he did next. Firstly, he must get out of the orange suit. Since it was still dawn and he was at Bandar area, there couldn’t possibly be any laundry hanging outside that he could conveniently snatch and he has no phone to call his friends for assistance. I believe he took off the suit and in the darkness, in just his underwear, jumped into the Brunei river at Kg Ayer, swam across to Sungai Kebun, and from there made his way to the closest mousetrail and crossed the border to Limbang. He couldve reached Limbang well before the news about his escape was circulated on WhatsApp. Well, it may not happen that way, but my theory sounds more consistent with the action movie-ish ring of the whole saga.

The 6 friends he left behind were later charged and sentenced to different jail terms and strokes of the cane. One got 13 years and 12 strokes. He could be the main perpetrator, the mastermind. 3 got 9 years and also 12 strokes. One got 5 years and 4 months and 3 strokes. One got 16 months. Im assuming that the last person was not involved in assaulting the house occupants thus didn’t get the stroke of the cane. Fast forward to 2019, 2 of them should be out of jail already.

What then happened to Malik Gerhana? Two weeks after his escape, he was listed in the Interpol’s Red Notice. It was not until 2017 that we heard about him again. Apparently, he went back to Lombok, got involved in an international drug smuggling ring, and was arrested in January 2017 by the Indonesian police as he was waiting at the airport for a drug mule from Malaysia to arrive with his meth consignment. He is now in the Indonesian prison. Or is he??

So what was the third ticking timebomb? I guess im gonna leave it unspoken…

This is about what I think as the most senseless crime ever happened in Brunei so far. Its perplexing though that people seem to have forgotten and stopped talking about it, given its bizarre circumstances. This crime happened in 2015 when a 43-year old local man was murdered at Jalan Pandan 7, Kuala Belait District in what would become the first social media murder in the country.

The motive of the murder was money. Two men were involved in the badly hatched plan, 27 and 33 year olds. Their plan was to use the internet to lure the victim for a booty call, kill him and take his money. They must be so stupid or high on drugs to think that it would be easy to execute. My guess was that they were inspired by similar MOs used by criminals in other countries. One example is the Craigslist Killer in 2009 in the US where the killer met his victims through the online Craigslist Ads (offering sex), robbed, and killed one of them.

They lured the victim by posing as a girl on the AsiaFreeChat mobile chat platform who offered sex for $3,500. Once the victim arrived at the house to meet the girl, he was welcomed by one of the men, the 27 year old, who pretended to be the girl’s brother. He offered the victim a drink laced with sleeping pills. The man however refused to take the drink and asked to see the girl immediately. The other man, the 33 year old, then snuck from behind and repeatedly bashed the back of the victim’s neck with a metal rod until the victim was unconscious. Realising that the victim was still alive, the man then finished him off by hitting his head, injecting him with weed poison, and slitting his throat with a parang. What a messy way to kill a person when they could just strangle the man from behind with a cable.

They then covered the body with a garbage bag and a carpet, put the body at the back seat of the victim’s own car, drove and abandoned the car with the body inside behind a cafe at Jalan Pandan 7.  They returned home to clean up traces of the victim’s blood before going to the ATM to try to withdraw the victim’s money. There was no money to withdraw, however, as the victim’s account was empty. I just cant believe that there are still people who are not aware of or are ignorant about the presence of cameras at ATMs.

The body was discovered three days later when one of the cafe’s staff noticed a bad smell coming from the car and called the police. Obviously, with the victim’s ATM card discovered missing, the police had their work cut out for them as CCTV footings at the ATM recorded the two men while trying to withdraw the victim’s money. The fact that the murderers didn’t get away with even a dollar at all made the murder ever so senseless. Also, the fact that those two morons are locals made me wonder what went wrong in their upbringing that they had total disregard of human life.

Both were arrested a week after the murder. Almost four years later, on 01 May 2019, the 27-year old man was sentenced to life imprisonment. His 33 year old partner, who was the main attacker, took the coward way out by committing suicide while in detention. There is no information on how he committed suicide. Obviously, being in a cell, he didn’t have a gun to shoot himself or sharp objects to slit his wrists or his throat. Should he also have weed poison in his pocket, that would have been confiscated before he was thrown in the cell. He only had the clothes on his back, so my guess is he hanged himself using his clothes. Ironically, the Craigslist Killer also killed himself in jail. I could be right about the inspiration theory. Just saying…

This is a story about the first gruesome murder that rocked Brunei – the murder of Suraya. It happened in the late 1970s. I am still researching on the exact year this happened. So far, reading Pelita Brunei from the year 1976, the then Head of Police in a speech indicated that there was no crime of murder in Brunei, and that the only major issue for the police at that time was the increasing number of fatal road accidents. So, based on this, I’m assuming that this murder happened after 1976. I also recalled being scared about the ghost of the murdered Suraya, knocking on doors looking for her missing head. This reinforced my theory that it happened after 1976, because there is no way for me to remember about it if it happened before the year, considering my age at that time. But my hunt for the exact year continues.

For now, not much was known about Suraya, at least nothing on record that I knew of. Nothing on her full name, her age, her kampung. So far I’ve not found any printed details about the murder. Given that the crime happened well more than 40 years ago, the credibility of information on it depends on who the information was from. It would be good if I can find someone who knew her, her friends, school or workmates or family member and perhaps the police personnel who dealt with the case. Right now, the next to credible information that I can get are from those who were at that time aware of the crime, affected by the shock, following the developments and still remember about it vividly today.

I managed to get some good information from someone who knew one of her siblings. The person told me her father’s name. Out of respect for her family, I won’t mention the name here. From the information, Suraya was from Kg Jangsak and she was just a teenager when she was killed.

It was said that Suraya was raped and murdered, her head was mutilated. Her headless body was found along the track leading to a water tower in Mabohai area. They never found her head. There was a wide belief that her boyfriend did it. There were samples sent to Singapore for forensic testing. But despite the high hopes, the people were quickly disappointed when the boyfriend was never arrested.

Clearly, given the sad state of her body, missing her head and all, it indicated an overkill, which means that her killer was not a stranger. If the head was deliberately removed to prevent identification, the killer would also have removed her fingers. In any investigation on a murder like this, I would expect the police to quickly focus on these 3 people: The person who “found” the body; the person who last seen her alive; and her significant other, in this case her boyfriend. There is a big chance that one of them is the killer or got something to do with the murder.

Not only that justice was never served for Suraya, she was accused of haunting people as a ghost knocking on doors looking for her head in what would become an urban legend that is much talked about to this day.

Time for another Brunei bizarre first. This involved two firsts –  first riadah murder and first (to my knowledge) murder case with released composite sketches.

Rapists and murderers preying on women joggers or hikers at recreation parks and nature reserves are common, but not in Brunei. Women in peaceful and safe Brunei never had to worry about being ambushed or attacked while out exercising alone. But that all changed in 2014, when the country was shocked with the case of a missing 39-year-old woman hiker at Bukit Shahbandar. After an extensive search, her dead body was found the next day inside a 20-feet ravine (thats quite deep). She was sexually assaulted and killed by manual strangulation. 12 days later, the police released composite sketches of the “persons of interest”, two individuals exactly.

The fact that no one witnessed the moment when the woman was interrupted from her hike and that the manner of killing was by manual strangulation, to me, showed that the perpetrator was lying in wait and that the attack and murder were premeditated, and most likely the attacker(s) had done such crime before and got away with it.

In the days following the murder, people were anxious and women were scared to go out for a jog or hike. Bukit Shahbandar was deserted for a moment. The police said they were still investigating and have interviewed more than 300 people. A press conference was held in order to appease the public.

Days turned to weeks turned to months turned to years, and no one has been arrested yet, and no more press conference to update the public. Slowly, people began to forget about the case, and went back to their lives.

One thing I learned from my visual research (watching youtube videos), the most difficult crime to solve is the stranger on stranger type. When the murderer and the victim are strangers and no common affiliation at all. In this type of case, having DNA evidence is meaningless if you don’t have a suspect to compare them to.  And there is no CODIS in Brunei, so dead end there. Dusting for fingerprints at a crime scene may look promising, but again, do we have a database of fingerprints for all (locals, permanent residents and foreign workers) to look for matches??

Looking at the composite sketch, it goes without saying that the persons of interest are not locals. What have not been divulged to the public is that they have been identified, and true indeed they were expatriates, not the typical foreign workers doing construction and all, they were in the professionals field. But, before our police even got a chance to react, they have conveniently left the country.  And that was it. I don’t think the solution of this case will see the light of day.

As the country’s population grows bigger and succumbed to the curses of development, more and more firsts are beginning to happen. These include crimes and other bizarre incidents.

First murder by shotgun – In the 1980s, the feud between two local plantation workers ended in tragedy when one of them shot dead the other using a shotgun. Both men were employed under the Syarikat Perusahaan Montrio, a Japanese company working on large scale tapioca plantation at Kg. Sinaut, Tutong. It was said that the fighting was over the allegation that one of the men was having an affair with the other’s wife. The killer had acquired the shotgun from Limbang. He was sentenced to death. Those who remember this case refer to it as the “murder on the hill” given that the plantation where the killing occurred was located on a hill.

First murder of employer’s baby by a domestic helper – In 1991, a domestic helper killed her employer’s 18-months old baby by hacking the baby’s neck with a butcher knife. The killing happened less than 24-hours after the domestic helper reported for duty at the employer’s house in Tutong.[Twist of Fate]

First dead body found at garbage dumping site – In 1996, a man got the shock of his life when while throwing his trash at the Binturan camp garbage dump site, he saw a dead body of a man lying among the heaps of trash. The body was badly bruised that seemed to be the result of multiple blows and struck by a blunt object. The man was beaten to death with excessive brutality. [Scorned]

First sensational spouse killing case – In 1997, a man was stabbed to death by his wife. I stand corrected, but relying on my memory, the victim was the owner of the Seri Meradun Restaurant who at that time had two wives. The wife who eventually killed him was his second wife, a Thai national. Digging further through those who remember the case, it was said that she stabbed him after a heated argument over money. She was convicted and sent to jail. I’m yet to find out how long was the jail term. But one thing for sure, she is already out of jail and ironically is currently running the same restaurant previously owned by her late husband that she killed. Question – Why was she not deported after being released from jail??

First armed robbery that caused death – In 1997, a gang robbery at the Tiong Hin Superstore in broad daylight killed one of the family members of the store’s owner. He was shot. The robbers were said to be security guards. Established in 1988, the store never recovered after the incident and the premise closed down in 2003. What happened to the robbers? They were arrested, 3 of them (two locals and one foreigner), currently still in jail serving a life sentence. What kind of weapons were used (guns?) and how did they acquire them?? Upon probing further (asking around), I’ve been told that the perpetrators or one of them were/was police personnel. If this was the case, that would explain the gun.

First dead body found in shallow grave – On 30 July 2000, some children chasing a kite saw a hand protruding from the ground and discovered a decomposing body of a female buried in a shallow grave in a jungle area in Tungku, not far from JIS and DST Complex. Police later released photos of the clothes that she was wearing at time of death in the hope of getting her identity. She was wearing a blue T-Shirt with the logo G5001 and blue jeans of LONA brand. Ive not come across any updates on this case. [Buried Secrets]

First case of spouse murder by poisoning. [I said first case because there could be other murders by poisoning before this that were just ruled as deaths by natural causes] – In April 2001, a 46-year-old mother in Kg Padnunok, Tutong poisoned her 43-year-old husband, with whom by the way she had 10 children. After being hospitalised for 25 days, the husband succumbed to his condition and passed away. Her reason? She couldn’t stand the constant physical and emotional abuse that she and her kids had been subjected to by the husband. [Last Straw]

First abduction from a basement parking – In 2003, armed men abducted a 34-year-old woman from the Badi’ah building basement parking. She was robbed, assaulted and was left tied up around a tree somewhere in the forested area near Kg Bukit Panggal in Tutong. She was badly hurt but luckily was found alive by family members. The men were quickly arrested and all were handed down heavy sentences. Lets just say that they are all still in jail today. It was considered as one of the horrific crimes ever committed in the country. The  machete that they used during the abduction is one of the exhibits on display at the police museum.

First heinous triple murder – In 2004, a couple and their two year old daughter were murdered at their home in Kg Serusop. I remember this case very well since the murdered wife was my high school senior and the house was located behind our hostel building. What made this case more heinous is that justice was never served because the murderer went free. Take a crime scene that was so compromised and combine it with defence lawyers with zero conscience, an evil killer walked free. This is a guy who smothered an innocent two year old toddler with a pillow, and brutally beat to death the couple with whom he was acquainted allegedly over money. Anyways, years later, even his smart ass lawyers could not save him from karma. He died of natural causes. Or was it really natural causes? Rumours that went around alleged that he was poisoned.

First horrific double homicide – In 2007, a married couple were murdered at their very home in Kg Telamba, Tutong. Their throats were slashed. The husband’s body was found inside the house, and the wife’s body were lying on the ground a few feet outside. Sadly, those responsible were never brought to justice. The people of the Kampong alleged that the murderers are juveniles from the Kampong as well [Presumed guilty until proven innocent]. In their 30s now, they still live among them, scot-free. I hope they have nightmares every night for the rest of their lives. [In Plain Sight]

First multiple casualties from gas explosion – At about midday on 30 December 2008, a gas explosion ripped through a seafood-processing factory in Serasa which killed 3 foreign workers and injured 16 others. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the workers were trying to install a spiral freezer system using ammonia as the refrigerant and in the process of testing, the ammonia tank ruptured causing the explosion. 32 workers were inside the plant at the time of the explosion. Nearby residents could hear the sound and felt the vibration of the blast.

First carbon monoxide poisoning in vehicle – In 2012, two locals, a 24 year old man and a 22 year old woman, were found dead in a saloon car at the Hwa Ho Manggis Mall basement parking. It was later announced that the two were victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. Those two were said to be students from a nearby technical college. Other than that there were not much details about the deceased or the model of car they were in.

First dead body appearing at random place – In 2013, a dead body of a man was found inside an electric substation near the Seri Kemayan Restaurant at Batu 1. There was no followup information (at least to my knowledge) on who the dead man was, what killed him, how did the body get there.

First social media murder – In 2015, a 43-year old local man was murdered at Jalan Pandan 7, Kuala Belait District. Two men lured the victim by posing as a girl on the AsiaFreeChat mobile chat platform who offered sex for $3,500. The intention was once the victim took the bait, they would kill him and take his money. After killing the man, they discovered that there was no money with him. They took his ATM card only to discover that the account was empty. Could the victim have sensed that it was a bogus deal? Or he never planned to pay anything for the sex. Either way, he totally didn’t expect that he was dealing with psychopaths. [Poisonous Encounter]

First double kidnapping and murder – In 2017, a 73 year old woman and her 23 year old adopted daughter, which were reported missing, were found dead by the roadsides at two different locations. The body of the 73 year old woman was found at the Bukit Panggal area, while the 23 year old was found at Kampong Dadap in Kilanas. Their bodies were found a week after they were last seen alive. The locations of their bodies were revealed by a 25 year old drug addict local who was found driving the victims’ car days after the women were reported missing. The sad thing is that a day before the women went missing, the drug addict had attacked a man with a knife at Batu Satu. Had he been apprehended then, the two women may not have had their lives senselessly taken by the idiot. The words that went around at that time were that the two women when last seen were on their way to go to Bandar for the Golden Jubilee celebration. Very disheartening. And if the information that they were strangled to death was true, it is very sad to imagine how helpless the elderly woman was to even put up a fight. Question – has he been convicted or the trial is still going on??

First robbery on passenger by people who offered the passenger a lift. I don’t know the fancy name for this kind of crime yet. But I do know that I’ve not heard about such crime happening in Brunei before until I read about it in the newspaper recently  – On 15 June 2019, two local men, ages 29 and 28, offered a man a ride from Mentiri to BSB for $1 (obvious red flag). Along the way, they stopped the car and robbed the man at knifepoint. Both were  arrested a day later. It was not surprising that both were unemployed. They even grinned when their mugshots were taken. My guess is that they are happy about going to jail and the prospects of free meals.

First death by elevator – On 06 May 2020, a foreign worker died from severe head injuries when he was crushed by a cargo elevator at the Pertama Jaya Department Store in Jerudong.

First maid murder by employer – In October 2020, it finally happened, a foreign domestic helper was brutally murdered by her employer. Over the years, a number of foreign domestic helpers in the country were subjected to physical torture by their employers, being denied their salaries and all. But, being murdered? Not in anyone’s wildest imagination.

First case where a man attacked and inflicted permanent injuries to a victim, at the victim’s home, caught on CCTV, but just got away with a fine – In February 2019, Lance Corporal Amzar of the RBAF came to the victim’s home uninvited, beat the crap out of the victim unprovoked, put the victim on a chokehold, flailing him around like a rag doll. It was a bloody attack and the act was caught on CCTV recording which was passed to the police for evidence. In 2021, Lance Corporal Amzar was just fined $3000 for the attack, didn’t spend a day in jail and now still serving in the military. [No Just-Ease]