HAVING survived cancer, Leong Lai Yong felt blessed for being given a new lease of life.
After recovery, the 57-year-old resumed a normal life by working in a kindergarten in Subang Jaya.
On Aug 25, 2010, her renewed life came to an end when she was stabbed to death in a robbery at an overhead pedestrian bridge.
As per her daily routine since Leong, who began work as a teacher two weeks earlier, took a bus from her house in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam to Bandar Sunway at 6am.
At about 7am in Bandar Sunway, Leong took a footbridge to reach the street where she normally took a connecting bus to her workplace.
While on the bridge, she was confronted by man who tried to snatch her handbag.
As the robber tugged at her handbag, the victim screamed frantically for help.
The woman’s cries for help drew the attention of passers-by, causing the angry robber to whip out a knife and stab Leong in her left rib cage to silence her.
When the woman collapsed, witnesses said the robber took to his heels empty-handed towards a nearby petrol station before they lost sight of him.
As Leong lay on the ground fighting for her life, she called her teenage daughter who was studying at a college in Kedah at the time.
However, before the loving mother could speak to her daughter, she passed out and was later pronounced dead at the scene.
At her wake, her daughters told reporters how their mother had often advised them to never put up a fight when confronted by robbers and to hand over their valuables to avoid getting hurt.
Although there were no witnesses who could tell if Leong had put up a struggle, it is believed that she was knifed for screaming out for help.
Police investigators recovered the murder weapon from a drain nearby and managed to lift thumbprints from it.
Blurry images of the robber were also developed from footage retrieved from closed-circuit television cameras in the vicinity.
Despite dogged efforts by investigators, the killer could not be traced.
The case remains unsolved.
