The Brutal Unsolved Murder of Melbourne Mum Jenny Rose Ng
Who killed the mother of four?
On the 23rd of April 1982, at approximately 12:30pm, two school girls — aged 7 and 9 — walked to the twenty-story Elizabeth Street flat building in Richmond, Melbourne and took the elevator to the 19th floor. They were hoping to sneak some lunch in with their mum before taking the four-minute walk back to school where their older brother would be waiting. When they opened the door to flat 119 however, they were met with a horrifying scene.
“I saw mummy on the floor. She had her face on the floor and there was a lot of blood around her,” One of Jenny’s young daughters told police, “I called and yelled at her. I yelled ‘mummy mummy, but she wouldn’t wake up”.
39-year-old Jenny Rose Ng lay face down on the “living, dining room floor”. She’d been stabbed over 30 times, with wounds to her ‘chest, throat, back and arms’. Jenny’s 11-month-old daughter — the youngest of four — was found lying in her cot in Jenny’s room, completely unharmed.
When investigators arrived, they immediately began to analyse the scene. Jenny was clothed and showed no signs of sexual assault, ruling out a sexually-motivated killing, but the common tell-tales of a robbery were also missing. There were no signs of forced entry, no strange fingerprints recovered and there were no bloody hand or foot prints left by the killer, as would be expected with such a brutal crime. Even stranger, there were no signs of a struggle within the flat. All evidence seemed to point to one theory: Jenny Rose Ng knew her killer.
And the evidence continued to mound. A neighbour of Jenny’s came forward, reporting they’d heard some strange noises in the Ng flat earlier that morning. According to the neighbour, at approximately 10:30am, they heard somebody walk past their window and knock twice on Jenny’s apartment door. They then heard Jenny speaking with a man — likely the same visitor — in Cantonese. About 45 minutes later, they heard ‘noises like furniture being moved and things falling’. Finally, they heard ‘the door to [Jenny’s] flat slam loudly’, and a man ‘say something angrily in English’. He didn’t walk past the neighbour’s window again, so the neighbours assumed he’d left by the stairs.
Police were convinced this man was Jenny’s killer, but they had a problem: they had no idea who he was.
A police caravan was set up in front of Jenny’s apartment building, begging the public for information on Jenny’s mysterious visitor. Certain that their killer had disposed of their murder weapon as they left, investigators also began rummaging through local rubbish bins. Unfortunately, no weapon was ever found, and no further information was gathered.
With nowhere else to turn, police began investigating Kam Hor Ng, Jenny Rose Ng’s defacto-husband.
Kam and Jenny’s marriage started as most love stories do. They traveled to Hong Kong to marry in 1969, then moved back to Australia to start a life of their own in Melbourne, Australia.
Jenny and Kam would go on to have three children together but, after 10 years of marriage, the Ng’s started to fall apart. Kam desperately didn’t want Jenny to leave but eventually the couple separated, with Kam moving out and Jenny keeping the Richmond apartment for her and the kids. One year later, Jenny was murdered.
At first, Kam appeared to fit the suspect’s profile. He’d been close with Jenny, had known the Richmond apartment building well, spoke Cantonese and may have had a motive: anger over his and Jenny’s separation.
However, a work mate of Kam’s gave him a solid abili for the day Jenny disappeared. In 2021, Cold Case Homicide Squad Detective Senior Sergeant Trichias stated the police were “comfortable on the evidence in hand there is nothing to suggest that [Kam] murdered Jenny”, however, he also added that “until somebody is charged, he will remain a person of interest as we have to keep an open mind”.
It is reported that Jenny’s children have not had contact with their father since Jenny’s death.
Jenny’s children also believe Jenny was killed by was someone she knew.
“We don’t have an understanding of why,” Jenny’s son states, “Why her? Why as horrific as it was?”
To this day, nobody has been held accountable for the brutal murder of Jenny Rose Ng. There is a $1 million dollar reward for anybody who can provide information leading to the apprehension and conviction of Jenny’s killer.
“As time passes people may feel like there’s less impact, it’s not as important, people have moved on with their lives, they’ve lived with it and it doesn’t mean so much any more.” One of Jenny’s daughters — remaining anonymous — states, “But it does, it means everything.”
For more information and a full list of references, see: https://codylwrites.com/2021/09/22/the-brutal-unsolved-murder-of-melbourne-mother-jenny-rose-ng/
