Sundarti Supriyanto

Sundarti Supriyanto (born 1979) is a former Indonesian maid who killed her employer and her employer’s daughter in Bukit Merah, Singapore. She was originally in line for the death penalty when she faced two charges of murder under section 300(c) of the Penal Code for the two deaths, which became known as the “Bukit Merah double murders” in Singapore.

Subsequently, Sundarti, who claimed to be abused by her late employer prior to the killings, was convicted of lesser charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in Singapore. Her case became known as one of the notable cases where maids had killed their employers or the employers’ kin, and her case was also a legal representative benchmark of the legal defence of “grave and sudden provocation” against murder in Singapore.

Early life

Sundarti Supriyanto, the eldest of three children in her family, was born in Indonesia sometime in 1979. She grew up in the village of Mengge, Magetan Regency, East Java.

Sundarti’s family was financially poor since her childhood. It can be assumed that she did not receive much schooling and had to work to provide for her family. In an unspecified year, she was recruited by a maid training agency, who would train young Indonesian women in doing household chores like cooking and cleaning before allowing them to work as foreign domestic maids in other countries. Sundarti was said to have agreed to do it since her family needed money and lived a hard life.