More than six years in prison for an undertaker who assisted in the suicide of his ex-boyfriend

SINGAPORE: A funeral director who assisted her ex-boyfriend’s suicide and lied about how he died was sentenced to six years and two months in prison on Friday (Oct 18).

District Judge Shawn Ho concluded that Alverna Cher Sheue Pin had been involved in Sean Wee Jun Xiang’s suicide plans, including participating in a “trial period” of the act and agreeing to oversee his funeral arrangements.

Passing sentence, Judge Ho said: “The crime of incitement to suicide is a clear signal that society is against suicide. Life is sacred.”

Cher has appealed her conviction and sentence.

The 42-year-old was found guilty on September 13 of deliberately assisting the suicide of 32-year-old Wee on May 16, 2020 and perverting the course of justice.

Cher, the director of City Funeral Singapore and Christian Funeral Singapore, was first charged with manslaughter not amounting to murder in December 2020.

The charge was reduced to assisting Wee’s suicide in October 2021.

The single mother of two had planned to plead guilty in July 2023, but changed her mind and demanded a trial on the two charges.

Cher and Wee began a romantic relationship in 2019.

The court previously heard that Wee had made Cher the beneficiary of a S$1 million life insurance policy he had purchased. She would receive 20 percent of the payout.

However, it was revealed that since Wee died less than a year after taking out the insurance policy, Cher did not receive any payout.

Because Cher did not ask him to delay the act by just 11 days – after which she would have been eligible for the payout – Judge Ho concluded that this factor did not motivate her to assist in Wee’s suicide.

From February to May 2020, Wee made plans to end his life and make his death appear natural.

Cher claimed during the trial that her ex-boyfriend was upset because he had lost money in various investments.

On May 16, 2020, Wee collected a nitrogen gas tank and drove his car to a parking lot at Block 145A Bedok Reservoir Road. He told Cher to come at 2pm and texted her “from.”

Cher arrived in a van around 1.45pm and found Wee still alive. She put on latex gloves to prevent her prints from being left behind, got into his car and sat with him.

Prosecutors said that instead of calling police or getting help, she released more gas from the tank.

Cher told the court that Wee helped move the nitrogen tank from his car to her van before returning to his car to lie in the driver’s seat.

Cher then left Wee alone in the car.

She returned around 4pm and found him dead.

She then had one Lawrence Cheo Oon Hooi drive the van away.

Although Cher denied that she had assisted Wee, the judge noted that she had contradicted herself.

In statements she made to police, she admitted to turning on the gas tank tap “about four to five times.”

The judge concluded that Wee had committed suicide by inhaling nitrogen gas, and the evidence showed that Cher had deliberately helped him.

The prosecutor asked for the “upper half of the sentence” for the crime of intentionally assisting suicide, without specifying an exact number.

The maximum prison sentence for this crime is 10 years.

In addition, prosecutors requested another one to one and a half years in prison for obstruction of justice.

Deputy District Attorney Marcus Foo said Cher was “not a passive bystander” and noted that she wrote Wee’s eulogy and agreed to dispose of evidence on his behalf.

Cher later claimed she had tried to stop Wee from ending his life, but DPP Foo said these claims were not credible.

DPP Foo said: “We say the mitigation plea ultimately exposes (Cher’s) complete lack of remorse, inability to accept responsibility for her actions (and) betrays an attempt to undermine the court’s findings.”

Cher’s lawyer, Peter Ong of Peter Ong Law Corporation, argued that Cher’s culpability was low as Wee was the one who did all the planning and research into his suicide.

The defense wrote in its mitigating plea: “Her involvement arose from emotional manipulation by (Wee) and a misplaced sense of duty to honor his final wishes.”

The attorney contrasted this with the 1987 case of a 27-year-old married man who drove his girlfriend to commit suicide in an attempt to extract $500,000 from her insurance policies.

The girlfriend jumped to her death from his ninth-floor flat on Chai Chee Avenue on June 16, 1987. The man was sentenced to eight years in prison in 1991.

In that case, the man manipulated her from the start, but there was no manipulation on Cher’s part of Wee, the lawyer said.

He added that Cher had stopped Wee from a previous suicide attempt and was even willing to sell her house to pay off his debts.

As her lawyer spoke, Cher wiped away tears as she sat in the dock.

Ong asked for no more than a year in prison for his client, adding that she had been “punished enough”.

He said: “I don’t think she will dare do this again. This is her lesson.”

***Those considering suicide can contact the Psychosocial Mental Health Support Service (03-2935 9935/014-322 3392); Talian Kasih (15999/019-261 5999 on WhatsApp); Jakim’s Family, Social and Community Care Center (011-1959 8214 on WhatsApp); or Befrienders Kuala Lumpur (03-7627 2929/email [email protected]/visit www.befrienders.org.my/centre-in-malaysia).