Murder of Iordanka Apostolova

On 13 January 1998, a Bulgarian student named Iordanka Apostolova Apostolova (Bulgarian: Иорданка Апостолова Апостолова), alias Tamia Pachinko (Тамиа Пачинко), was discovered dead in a canal at Tanah Merah Ferry Road, Singapore. Investigations led the police to arrest one male suspect, who was Iordanka's friend, while another man surrendered himself to the police. The two men were charged with her murder and later hanged in 1999. A third accomplice, the wife of one of the executed men who helped conceal the evidence of the murder, was subsequently imprisoned for six years by the courts for failing to report the crime to the authorities.

Background

Not much is publicly known about Apostolova's early life. A newspaper article about her funeral says it took place "at the family home in Burgas, Bulgaria". The same article describes her father as "a former military man and now a co-owner of a computer firm in Burgas", and says her mother worked as "a computer operator at a petrol refinery".

Apostolova arrived in Singapore in late 1996. She made friends with the members of the Singapore Amateur Boxing Association (SABA), and in July 1997, accompanied the team to Bogor, Indonesia, to watch them compete in the President's Cup. SABA secretary and national boxing team coach Syed Abdul Kadir later said:

She told me she was doing computer studies here.