The first job of actress turned property agent Melissa Faith Yeo back in 2016 was to help sell the Toa Payoh Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat infamous for its ritual murders.
She had no idea of the flat’s history and only became aware after the buyers began asking her specific questions about the property.
Ms Yeo recently revealed what happened, including other details such as her career or her hamster’s OnlyFans account, in a YouTube interview with online content creator Singaplex.
Ms Yeo was asked what some of the “weirdest” properties she’s ever sold were.
Without skipping a beat, she remembers the Toa Payoh flat, which she helped market as a new agent.
“So I went down for a viewing one day, like my first year being so happy and then I went to the flat, and it just looked like a normal HDB three-room to me,” she reminisced.
Ms Yeo said that she thought things were normal, but the buyer mentioned something, which she initially shrugged off but was followed by more questions from other potential buyers.
The callers asked if the flat was facing the garden, was a corner unit, or was on the seventh floor.
“I was like, ‘How do you know this house?’’ she asked.
Details on the flat were widely publicized by media during the ritual murders case.
Ms Yeo’s colleague eventually revealed the history of the flat, noting it had stayed on the market for a “very, very long time” after repossession.
She noted that the listing agent “got too spooked out” and dropped the property.
However, for Yeo, her experience taught her that “there’s no such thing as an unsellable property in Singapore.”
“I tend to think the dead aren’t as scary as the living,” she added.
Background on the ritual murders
In 1981, Adrian Lim, a self-proclaimed healer and medium who believed he had supernatural powers, kidnapped, tortured and murdered two children in his Toa Payoh flat with the help of his wife and mistress.
The murders shocked the country due to their brutality, with reports on the case remaining in the public’s consciousness for years.
The trio was sentenced to death and hanged on Nov 25, 1988.
The said flat at Block 12 Toa Payoh Lorong 7 was eventually repossessed by the state and listed for sale. It was put back on the market over the years, ending up as Ms Yeo’s task to sell./TISG