Victim called wife 2 hours before shooting (Straits Times)

He had asked for her help to draft letter of termination for employee, the alleged gunman

By Lee Hui Chieh

ON TUESDAY afternoon, Madam Doreen Chay got a call from her husband in Thailand. He had already called her twice before that day to ask her advice on drafting a letter of termination in Chinese.

Less than two hours after that last call, 43-year-old Mr Jimmy Low Beng Lee was murdered. The letter she had helped him compose had apparently led to his death.

Recalling that last conversation yesterday, Madam Chay told The Straits Times: 'He asked me about some Chinese phrases because his Chinese wasn't very good.'

That afternoon, Mr Low had called a meeting with his sales manager, a 55-year-old Taiwanese man, to tell him he was being fired because he was suspected of embezzling company funds.

The suspect was said to have fired five shots from a 0.38mm gun into their car. Mr Low was hit twice in the head and died shortly afterwards. Mr Chamlong, who was Mr Low's assistant, was shot three times and died on Thursday.

Madam Chay said she realised something was wrong when she called her husband's cellphone that night and there was no response.

It was the family's habit to chat every day. Madam Chay would usually call her husband around 9.30pm to 10pm and she, her husband and their 12-year-old daughter would talk on a three-way phone, sometimes for up to an hour.

Madam Chay said: 'I must have called at least 10 times. The last time, my husband's Thai secretary picked up, but her English wasn't very good and she asked me to call his boss.'
Mr Low's boss, a close friend and former classmate from Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road), did not dare to break the news to Madam Chay that her husband was already dead.

He told her only that Mr Low had been shot and that she should fly down to Bangkok the next day. She spent the whole of Tuesday night packing and talking to her sister-in-law, Mr Low's elder sister Joni.

Mrs Joni Ong, 45, who is the wife of Tampines GRC MP Ong Kian Min, said: 'We told ourselves then to be prepared for the worst, but there was still hope that he would pull through.'
The next morning, Madam Chay, her daughter and Mr Low's youngest sister Vivien arrived in Bangkok on the first available flight.

She knew things had gone wrong when she called Mr Low's boss and he told her to go to the police station, where she was then led to her husband's body in the mortuary.
'I don't really remember what I did. I only know I was crying and kept trying to wake my husband up.'

Speaking during his wake yesterday, she said: 'He was my husband, my friend, someone I could trust. I will miss holding his hands, having a meal with him. I'm going to miss him a lot.'
Mr Low's father, 78-year-old Mr Low Hock Chye, said: 'I was depressed and shocked. He was my only son. But then you have to accept it. Everyone has to go, it's just a matter of when and how.'

Mr Low's funeral will be held on Monday.

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Sigh.... Straits Times front page somemore....