Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa'ee

Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee. Photo from Facebook.

Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee (born 1985) is a Singaporean murder suspect accused of killing a fellow Singaporean by the name of Felicia Teo, who went missing in 2007. On 15 December 2020, Ahmad was placed under arrest after authorities uncovered fresh leads on the 13-year-old “cold” case.

Background

Personal life & education

Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee attended the Lasalle College of the Arts from 2000-2004, where he pursued a diploma in Communication Design and Advertising. It is known that he met Felicia Teo through his friend and accomplice, Ragil Putra Setia Sukmarahjana; both Felicia and Ragil were enrolled at the Lasalle College of the Arts at the time.

According to news reports, he had also been known as “Danial Enemiko” on social media.

Career

Razer

Prior to his arrest, Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee was a creative manager at the gaming and technology company, Razer Inc.

Newsworthy incidents

The murder of Felicia Teo

Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee has been accused of murdering Felicia Teo, a 19-year-old student who went missing on 30 June 2007. He had been acquainted with the victim prior to her disappearance.

Fresh leads emerge 13 years later (2020)

Several years after Felicia Teo’s missing persons case was declared cold (2007), the Singapore Criminal Investigation Department (CID) managed to uncover fresh leads in the midst of further investigations into the case.

While tracing what the authorities believed to be Felicia’s possessions at the time of her disappearance, the investigations pointed to Ahmad as a prime suspect. CID then proceeded to arrest him on 15 December 2020.

During the 2007 investigations, Ahmad and his accomplice, Ragil had once claimed that they last saw Felicia with a “cream-coloured bag containing her Apple laptop and digital camera”.

Arrested and held in remand for investigations (2020)

Ahmad was taken into custody on 15 December 2020 and later charged over a video link for the murder of Felicia on 17 December. He was sporting unkempt hair and wore a grey T-shirt, and appeared to be impassive as his charge was read to him.

Subsequently, he was held in remand at the Tanglin and Central Police Divisions. It had also been reported that his family hired a legal team from Withers KhattarWong to defend his case.

According to court papers, Ahmad and Ragil are believed to have murdered Felicia at the 19 Marine Terrace, sometime between 1.39am and 7.20am on the morning of 30 June 2007. Due to the new evidence, he was also accused of “intentionally omitting to give information” on Felicia’s disappearance and death, from the authorities.

Granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal for the murder of Felicia Teo (2022)

In June 2022, the court substituted his murder charge with 6 other charges for lesser offences and offered him bail. At the same time, it was ruled that Ahmad will be granted a discharge without amounting to an acquittal.

He is now faced with charges for 6 lesser offences that largely involve providing false accounts or omitting evidence key to investigations:

• He created a false impression that Felicia was alive by making calls and sending voicemails and messages to her phone and social media accounts.
• To corroborate his initial statements to the police, he left Felicia’s phone nearby East Coast Park.
• He was found to be in possession of Felicia’s mobile phone, MacBook Pro, and Olympus DSLR camera, which he did not declare to the authorities during the 2007 investigations.
• On 11 and 15 July 2007, he claimed that he did not know what happened to Felicia after she left a party on the night before her disappearance.
• He left Felicia’s corpse somewhere near Punggol Track 24. Under the Act, he could be jailed for up to six months or fined up to S$2,000, or both.

Appealing for discharge amounting to an aquittal for the murder of Felicia Teo (2022)

On 8 July, Ahmad’s legal team filed for an appeal for his discharge. They pushed their case forward on the premise that the second suspect, Ragil, is still at large. This meant that Ahmad will still face the possibility of being prosecuted for the murder in the future, for “an indeterminate time”.

Set to return to court to plead guilty (2022)

Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa’ee pictured arriving at the State Courts on July 6, 2022. Photo from CNA.

As of September 2022, Ahmad is out on a bail of S$20,000 and is set to plead guilty in court on 14 October 2022. Previously, he had been expected to attend court for such a hearing on 6 July 2022, but had been adjourned due to unresolved matters between prosecution and defence.

Sentenced to 26 months in jail

On 14 October 2022, Ahmad Danial Mohamed Rafa'ee was sentenced to 26 months in jail after coming clean about disposing of Felicia Teo's corpse, "misappropriating her belongings, fabricating false evidence and giving false evidence to the police." Prosecutors had said that the crime was premeditated and requested for a total jail sentence of 27 months, given that Ahmad had planned how he would dispose of the body. The pair transported Teo's body out of the Marine Terrace flat in a carton box to Punggol Track 24 where they proceeded to dig a shallow hole in the ground and set the body ablaze. After covering the remnants of the burnt corpse with soil, the pair then misappropriated Teo's belongings to mislead the police.

Ahmad had also kept his part in Teo's death a secret from his family and friends, resulting in the "perversion of justice for a long period of 13 years".

Ahmad's lawyers argued that Ahmad had also acted in the way that he did out of fear of being caught for drug consumption. It was revealed that both Ahmad and Ragil had discovered Teo's body was cold to the touch after taking ecstasy in the wee hours of the morning on 30 June 2007.

His jail sentence takes into account the 1.5 years he spent on remand.