A gruesome murder
K
Herzog, a businessman, told her to stay in their room and went to investigate.
Moments later, his wife heard his cries before he came up to her with a deep slash wound on his face and told her to call the police.
Herzog went out again while his wife remained in the room.
Minutes later, the woman’s older daughter knocked on her door and told her that Herzog was lying unconscious at the base of the stairway in a pool of blood.
He was dead with 23 slash wounds inflicted with a parang, a post-mortem revealed later.
Police recovered the murder weapons before arresting the four youngsters.
Less than two weeks later, Herzog’s stepdaughters and the two teenage boys were charged with the murder of the Australian. All four pleaded not guilty.
During the trial, the court heard that
Crimes that shook the nation
the girls had befriended the boys just months before the incident and had sneaked out of the house on several occasions to spend time with them when their parents were asleep.
The court also heard that the younger girl had lamented to the boys that their stepfather was allegedly strict, restricted her freedom and was abusive.
At the end of the trial in 2006, both girls were freed after the Shah Alam High Court found they were not directly involved in the killing.
The two teenage boys had their murder charge reduced to manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
However, the prosecution appealed
against the sentence and in 2009, the Court of Appeal struck out the jail sentence and replaced it with the death penalty on ruling the murder was premeditated.
The younger boy who was 17 at the time of the murder was spared the noose as he was considered a minor and was ordered to be held in prison at the pleasure of the Sultan of Selangor.
His older friend, Low Kian Boon, was not so lucky as he was 18 during the incident and was ordered to be hanged.
In 2010, he made an appeal against the sentence but it was upheld by the Federal Court, leaving him with the only option of seeking a pardon from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
Low, now aged 34, remains in prison awaiting the royal pardon.