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 () and Aston Yap Kai Shern (), who were both diagnosed with autism, were murdered by their 48-year-old father Xavier Yap Jung Houn (). Yap strangled them both to death before attempting suicide. Yap was charged with the double murder, which shocked the nation at the 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 wanted to kill the twins so they would not be burdens to 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.
Background Twins Ethan Yap E Chern and Aston Yap Kai Shern were born on 14 October 2010 to parents Xavier Yap Jung Houn and Anna Seah Puay Hiang, the latter who had a daughter from a previous marriage who lived with the Yaps. Yap, a university graduate who formerly worked as a manager at the Ministry of Defence, had once studied for a doctorate in England.
When both Ethan and Aston were two years old, Yap and his wife suspected that the brothers were autistic after noticing certain behavioral signs. 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 enroll the boys in a special education school, enrolled the boys at age 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, 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 when he disciplined the twins. Yap also played a more major role in their studies and often made time to spend with them after they enrolled in primary school.
However, in 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, which only added to his concerns. In December 2021, Yap began to harbour suicidal thoughts, and 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 was a sign that his wife had given up on the boys, Yap began harbouring serious thoughts of killing his sons before he committed suicide, so as to unburden his wife. Yap also feared for his sons, concerned that they would become ostracized should he and his wife die one day, and which became another factor behind his motive of murdering his sons on 21 January 2022.
Double murder 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 brought his sons to play. The area was said to be near a forest and an open field, which was also why he chose that place. At about 4:45 PM, Yap armed himself with the ice pick and drove his sons to the playground. 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 in the canal. Throughout the murder of Ethan, Aston was watching quietly on the side and after his brother died, Aston met the same fate, with Yap strangling Aston to death before he also submerged the boy's head into the canal water to make sure he was dead. 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 the ice pick, a tree branch and a rock. 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 waiting for the police's arrival. Additionally, Yap went back to the canal area and shouted for help. After the arrival of police, Yap told them that he had been attacked and that someone else had killed his sons. This led the police to investigate 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 suspicious sightings.
Yap was subsequently taken to the 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. Through further investigations, Yap became the prime suspect and he gradually confessed that he murdered his twin sons. Yap was arrested for double murder.
The boys were cremated at Mandai Crematorium on 24 January 2022. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore and related restrictions, only 30 family members and friends were present at the funeral wake. The boys' older sister recovered their bodies from the mortuary for funeral preparations, and she also handled the funeral arrangements with the help of the funeral director, Fong Chun Cheong, who was purportedly a friend of the Yap family.
Indictment and remand After the double murder, the police announced to the public that they had arrested Yap for the crime, and they confirmed that he would be charged with murder under Section 302(1) of the Penal Code 1871, for which the death penalty was warranted if found guilty.
On 24 January 2022, 48-year-old Xavier Yap Jung Houn was officially charged in court with the murder of one of his sons, whom the media and court reported as Ethan Yap E Chern, but at that point, Yap had yet to face any charges for the death of Ethan's twin brother. The twins' murders were the second murder case to happen during that same month; the first case was the 11 January fatal stabbing of a 30-year-old pregnant woman named Isabel Elizabeth Francis, who was killed by her husband David Brian Chow Kwok-Hun in a murder-suicide attempt; 33-year-old Chow, who did not die from his self-inflicted wounds, was charged with murder before being sentenced to seven years' in jail in October 2023 for a reduced charge of manslaughter.
On 27 January 2022, Yap was brought back to the crime scene to re-enact how he murdered Ethan and Aston. He was ordered to be remanded four days later at the medical centre of Changi Prison for psychiatric evaluation.
On 18 February 2022, Yap returned to court a second time and was charged with murdering his other son, Aston Yap Kai Shern.
In November 2022, Yap, who was still in remand awaiting trial for the double murder, discharged his previous lawyer, Anil Singh Sandhu, and engaged a new four-member defence counsel, consisting of veteran criminal lawyer Choo Si Sen and his daughter Choo Yean Lin, their law firm associate Patrick Nai, and Muhammad Razeen Sayed Majunoon from another law firm. No reasons were given for Yap's decision to change lawyers.
On 28 February 2023, the charges of murder against Yap were reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which was equivalent to manslaughter in Singaporean law. The maximum sentence for manslaughter was life imprisonment. It was revealed that based on the assessment of Dr Christopher Cheok, a psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health, Yap was diagnosed with major depressive disorder of moderate severity and the illness was sufficient to impair his mental responsibility at the time of the murders. The prosecution therefore decided to reduce the murder charges, which allowed Yap to escape the death penalty for murdering his sons. His case was also scheduled for further mention in March 2023.
On 18 April 2023, Yap, then 49 years old, was scheduled to stand trial at the High Court later that same year for the double manslaughter of Aston and Ethan, after Yap expressed his willingness to plead guilty. He was also scheduled to return in May 2023 for a pre-trial conference.
Trial of Xavier Yap Jung Houn
On 15 August 2023, Xavier Yap Jung Houn, who turned 50 before his trial, appeared in court to submit his guilty plea for the double manslaughter of Aston Yap and Ethan Yap. Yap was convicted of the charges after he pleaded guilty before Justice Vincent Hoong of the High Court.
Yap's sentencing trial took place on the same date he pleaded guilty. The prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kumaresan Gohulabalan, sought a jail term of 14 to 20 years and that both sentences should be served consecutively, stating that with two lives lost in this case, it would not be a crushing sentence. DPP Kumarsen argued that the victims in this case were vulnerable children diagnosed with autism, and Yap had taken meticulous steps to lure the boys and killed one of the brothers, Ethan, in front of the other twin, Aston, and ensured that both of them died by pinning their heads in the canal water.