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New $1 million reward to flush out killer of Jenny Rose Ng

THE children of murdered Jenny Rose Ng found her body and, 36 years later, still want answers on their mother’s death. Now Victoria Police hope a $1 million reward will flush out information on the killer.

DNA database solving old crimes

POLICE are pinning their hopes on a $1 million reward flushing out the mystery man who knocked on murder victim Jenny Rose Ng’s door in 1982.

Evidence suggests he was the killer who repeatedly stabbed the mother of four in a frenzied attack.

A new investigation into the savage murder by the cold case homicide squad has convinced detectives Ms Ng, 39, knew her attacker and let him into her home on the 19th floor of the Richmond housing commission flats in Elizabeth St.

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Murder victim Jenny Rose Ng with her youngest daughter.
Murder victim Jenny Rose Ng with her youngest daughter.

They have a statement from a witness who heard someone knock on Ms Ng’s door at flat 199 about 10.30am on April 23, 1982.

The witness heard Ms Ng answer the door and say something in either a Macao or Cantonese dialect.

Noises were later heard coming from the flat, which sounded like furniture was being moved around or falling over.

“Some time shortly afterwards the noises from inside the flat had stopped,” the witness told detectives.

“I heard the door slam at flat 199. It was loud.”

The witness said the man said something in English as he left Ms Ng’s flat.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal homicide squad boss Tim Day will today announce a $1 million bounty is available to anyone with information which solves the decades old case.

Ms Ng’s body was found by her two daughters, then aged 9 and 8, when they came home from school for lunch.

“I saw mummy on the floor. She had her face on the floor and there was a lot of blood around her,” the eight-year-old told detectives just three hours after discovering her mother’s body.

“I called and yelled at her. I yelled ‘mummy, mummy, but she wouldn’t wake up.”

Ms Ng’s body was found by her two daughters when they came home from school for lunch.
Ms Ng’s body was found by her two daughters when they came home from school for lunch.

All four of Ms Ng’s children have asked not to be identified.

Ms Ng’s then nine-year-old daughter also spoke to detectives just hours after coming home to find her murdered mother.

“The door is always locked so we knock on it. Mummy asks who it is, then she lets us in,” she told police in 1982.

“Today the door was unlocked so Jane (not her younger sister’s real name) went inside first and I followed straight behind her.

“I went straight into the lounge room where Jane was and then I saw Mummy laying on the floor.

“I saw a lot of blood around Mummy, on the floor and also in her hair.

“I didn’t touch Mummy but Jane did. Jane touched Mummy to see if she was all right.

“I didn’t see Mummy move so I ran to knock on the flat door next to us.”

Cold case homicide squad detective senior sergeant Peter Trichias yesterday told the Sunday Herald Sun it was crucial to identify the man who knocked on Ms Ng’s door the day she was murdered.

“We hope the $1 million reward will lead to us doing that,” he said.

“If we identify that man I think we will solve the actual crime.”

Ms Ng’s 11-month-old daughter was in her cot in 1982 when her mother was stabbed to death in the next room.

Ms Ng’s 11-month-old daughter was found in this cot, next door to the room her mother was murdered in.
Ms Ng’s 11-month-old daughter was found in this cot, next door to the room her mother was murdered in.

Now 36, she dearly wants the killer caught and hopes the $1 million reward being revealed today will finally bring justice for the mother she never knew.

She and her older brother yesterday spoke to the Sunday Herald Sun about the cold case murder of their mother and their renewed hope the reward might solve it.

Their two sisters, aged 9 and 8 at the time of the stabbing, found their mother’s body in their Richmond housing commission flat in Elizabeth St and have never forgotten the horror of doing so.

None of Ms Ng’s four children want to be identified.

The daughter who was only 11 months old at the time of her mother’s death yesterday said she and her brother and sisters wanted justice and closure.

“There is this massive void in our family,” Jill, not her real name, said.

“Mum was this loving driving force that held us all together, but I think, seeing my siblings, I feel like there is always something missing and it’s a sore spot in our lives.”

Jill issued an emotive plea to anybody who knows anything about her mother’s death.

“Share what you know with police to help us understand why our mother was taken away from us,” she said yesterday.

“We can never get her back, but understanding why would help.”

Ms Ng and her husband Kam Hor Ng, the father of her four children, married in Hong Kong in 1969.

They frequently lived apart during what police discovered was a rocky marriage and separated for good when his wife was pregnant with Jill, their fourth child, which was more than a year before Ms Ng was murdered.

Ms Ng’s only son was 11 when his mother was attacked and killed on April 23, 1982. He and his three sisters then went to live with by their maternal grandparents.

“My grandparents were retired at the time, in their 60s,” Jim, not his real name, said yesterday.

“I can never thank them enough for bringing us up.”

The youngest daughter and son, who asked not to be identified stand outside the Richmond housing commission flats where their mother was murdered. Picture: David Caird
The youngest daughter and son, who asked not to be identified stand outside the Richmond housing commission flats where their mother was murdered. Picture: David Caird

Jim said he and his sisters had been looking for answers to solve the mystery of their mother’s death for decades.

“Given how violent the offence was, it’s about wanting to understand why. The not knowing is hard,” he said.

“Why did it happen in the way it did? Why was it so violent? Why her?

“We hope the $1 million reward will lead to those questions being answered.”

Constable Jacqueline Brown was the first police officer to arrive at the murder scene in 1982 and found Jill crying in her cot in her mother’s bedroom.

“One of the ambulance officers then entered this room and took the baby out of the flat,” Constable Brown said.

Jill is the only one of her siblings to have had any contact with their father since the murder of their mother.

Their father was a suspect in this matter. This was explored thoroughly by the original investigation and also the current probe. As it currently stands Mr Ng is not considered a suspect for the murder of his wife.

When Jill was 25 she asked her siblings if they minded if she made contact with their father, who she had never met.

“While they didn’t want any contact with him they said I was an adult and welcome to go and find out for myself what he was like,” she said yesterday.

“We had dinner together and he was really nice.

“I kind of just wanted to know where I came from.

“He brought up the murder. What he said was ‘I didn’t do it’, he brought it up as one of the first things he said.

“As a first introduction to someone, I wasn’t prepared for that and didn’t really want to question him about it.

“I didn’t go there to solve a murder. I went there to meet my father for the first time, to find out what he was like personally, his personality.”

That dinner about 10 years ago is the only time Jill has met her father.

The then homicide squad detective Paul Sheridan prepared a report for his boss in 1983 after a lengthy investigation into whether Mr Ng might have been involved in his wife’s death.

“The evidence obtained in the investigating may afford the conclusion that the deceased was known to the person or persons responsible for her death,” detective senior constable Sheridan said in his report.

“However this evidence in itself is difficult to link with the husband of the deceased.

“While their marriage could be termed a most unsuccessful one it appears suspicion alone is all that implicates Kam Hor Ng in the death of his wife.”

Mr Ng has been reinterviewed as part of the current new probe into Ms Ng’s murder, as has his then girlfriend, who provided Mr Ng with his alibi for the time his wife was killed — he reiterated his innocence and she gave the same alibi evidence as she did in 1982.

Cold case homicide squad detective Peter Trichias yesterday told the Sunday Herald Sun: “We are comfortable on the evidence in hand there is nothing to suggest that he murdered Jenny, but until somebody is charged he will remain a person of interest as we have to keep an open mind.”

Jenny Rose Ng knew her attacker and let him into her home on the 19th floor of the Richmond housing commission flats in Elizabeth St.
Jenny Rose Ng knew her attacker and let him into her home on the 19th floor of the Richmond housing commission flats in Elizabeth St.

Sen-Sgt Trichias revealed they have a statement from a witness who heard someone knock on Ms Ng’s door at flat 199 about 10.30am on April 23, 1982.

The witness heard Ms Ng answer the door and say something in either a Macao or Cantonese dialect.

Noises were later heard coming from the flat, which sounded like furniture was being moved around or falling over and a short time after that there was the sound of a door being slammed and man saying something in English as he left Ms Ng’s flat.

“It’s quite clear that when Ms Ng’s kids leave to go to school on the morning of the murder they lock the door and they make sure it is locked,” Sen-Sgt Trichias said.

“That was their standard practice and their mother doesn’t open up the door unless she knows who it is.

“She’s not going to open up the door to a stranger.

“At the moment there are a lot of ifs and buts and whens because we are not certain what actually occurred in the flat.

“But what we do know, probably the strongest point of it all, is that we do know somebody goes to the flat, we do know there is a conversation, we do know that person enters the place and is there for some time and that man is heard saying something as he leaves.

“We think that person may have known Ms Ng or had an association or relationship with her.

“The circumstances dictate that it is probably somebody she knows.

“We are pretty confident there’s been no theft from the place and there’s no indication of any sexual assault, so we are pretty confident that man has probably been invited into the flat or had a key.

“You look at the scene, you look at the amount of stab wounds, definitely there’s some sort of emotional reasons behind it.

With her youngest daughter.
With her youngest daughter.

“Clearly it’s a frenzied attack. If it had been a burglar you’d get the ransacking, items taken and that’s not the case here.

“To stab somebody so many times, clearly intention is there, there’s only one intention and that’s to kill her.”

Asked if he believed the mystery man who knocked on Ms Ng’s door a couple of hours before her body was found was the killer, Sen-Sgt Trichias said: “Circumstantially, more than likely you would say yes.”

He said the new investigation into Ms Ng’s murder had reached the point where the best chance of it being advanced further was with the help of the public — hence the release of the $1 million reward being announced today.

“There have been a number of persons of interest interviewed over the years. Our strongest lead is the man who goes to the flat and knocks on the door,” Sen-Sgt Trichias said.

“This man has not been identified and we consider him or strongest suspect.

“We hope the reward brings in more leads. These rewards do work for us as an investigative tool.

“We are hoping for two main things. Either somebody who knows that male who goes to the flat, somebody who may have seen that person leave and for whatever reason has never come forward, or this male may have said something to somebody and because of their relationship that person has never spoken about that conversation.

“Releasing the reward will hopefully be enough to encourage those people — or any others who know anything about the case — to contact us.

“I appeal to anyone with any information about what happened to Jenny Ng, no matter how insignificant they may think it is, to come forward as it could be just the little piece of information we are looking for to help us complete the picture.

“For example, people might think it is insignificant that a man turns up at Jenny Ng’s place and they may have seen that particular person on that particular day but have never told anyone because they thought it was irrelevant.

“That’s the sort of person we want to come forward.

“If anybody has held back from saying what they know because of fear or other reasons then we want to assure them that we can assist them.”

Sen-Sgt Trichias urged anyone who knows the identity of the mystery man who visited Ms Ng shortly before her body was found — or anyone with any information about the case — to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online at crimestoppersvic.com.au

keith.moor@news.com.au

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Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/new-1-million-reward-to-flush-out-killer-of-jenny-rose-ng/news-story/c766c3d03bba64926c1bf1ef0e85d5ee