SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): The family of Audrey Fang, who was killed in Spain in 2024, has asked a Spanish court to keep the suspected perpetrator, Mitchell Ong, in custody for another two years.
Ms Fang, a Singaporean who had travelled to Spain alone, was found dead with 30 stab wounds on April 10, 2024, in a field in the town of Abanilla. Ong, also a Singaporean, was arrested in Spain on April 16 that year.
Lawyer Manuel Martinez, who is representing Ms Fang’s family as a private prosecutor, noted that Ong’s pre-trial detention will soon be up, according to a document seen by Spanish media outlet La Verdad.
A private prosecutor allows victims to actively participate in criminal proceedings by presenting evidence and seeking compensation alongside or independently of the public prosecutor.
Citing a possibility that Ong might try to evade justice if released, Mr Martinez asked the judge to keep Ong detained for longer.
The document viewed by La Verdad stated that Ong has no financial resources or ties to Spain, and warned of the risk that he could try to influence the investigation.
A person in pre-trial detention in Spain can be held for up to two years. This may be extended by another two years if the case cannot be brought to trial within that period.
Ong is currently awaiting trial. If found guilty of murder, he could be jailed for between 15 and 25 years.
His court-appointed lawyer, Ms Maria Jesus Ruiz de Castaneda, is requesting that the case be dismissed.
Ms Fang, 39, left for Spain on April 4, 2024, and became uncontactable on the night of April 9, 2024. She had told her family that she might be meeting a former colleague there.
In June that year, Ms Fang’s friends told a Spanish court that she had been romantically interested in Ong, 43, whom she had met on a social dating network.
The friends said Ong appeared to be only keen on selling financial assets to Ms Fang. He had sold her two investment-linked policies in 2015, when he was working as an insurance agent with AIA.
He was also found to be nominated as the sole beneficiary of Ms Fang’s Central Provident Fund savings, with the accounts reportedly containing $498,000.
In June 2025, investigations revealed that one of two male DNA profiles found on Ms Fang’s body matched Ong’s paternal lineage.
Ong’s lawyer said then that the findings could not be used to identify a person conclusively, as the genetic marker is shared with all male members of Ong’s paternal lineage. -- The Straits Times/Asia News Network
