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Murder of Goh Beng Choo

1980 murder of a girl in Singapore

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ121494200
Source-derived summary

On 19 November 1980, the body of 8-year-old Goh Beng Choo (Chinese: 吴明珠; pinyin: Wú Míngzhū) was found behind a Taoist temple in Bukit Batok, Singapore.

Background

Goh Beng Choo's family lived in the now-demolished village of Jalan Petua in present-day Bukit Batok. Beng Choo, a Primary Two student of Jurong Primary School, performed well at school and achieved eighth position in her class that year.

Murder

On the evening of 19 November 1980, the Goh family was celebrating Beng Choo's academic achievements when Beng Choo walked out of the house. Goh's then-ten-year-old brother Goh Leng Hai last saw her on the road in front of their house as he went to buy noodles for his family. She was missing for a few hours before her body was found behind a Taoist temple in the village, about 120 metres from her home, a structure that was rarely used, mostly for celebratory events.

Goh had scratch marks on her face, neck and arms and her blouse was slightly torn. The cause of death was a ruptured liver, resulting from blows to the abdomen. Dr Ong Beng Hock, a pathologist, found bruises all over her face, body and limbs. Goh was also sexually assaulted prior to her death.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Murder of Goh Beng Choo” as 1980 murder of a girl in Singapore. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Murder, Beng and Choo can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 1980 murder of a girl in Singapore. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q121494200. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1980.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Murder of Goh Beng Choo”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Murder of Goh Beng Choo primary sources, Murder of Goh Beng Choo archive and Murder research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Murder of Goh Beng Choo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.