McDonald’s Boys Case: The Mystery of the Disappearance of Two Children That Shocked Singapore in 1986

On the afternoon of May 14, 1986, a sixth-grade student, Keh Chin Ann, the youngest of three siblings and the only son in his family, arrived at Owen Primary School by school bus. Upon arrival, he met his classmate Wang Piwei, who offered to watch Chin Ann’s school bag while he went to a nearby shop outside the school to buy something. Piwei left Chin Ann’s school bag outside the shop bench, thinking Chin Ann would return to retrieve it. However, that was the last time Piwei saw his friend.

Meanwhile, Chin Ann’s close friend, Toh Hong Huat, born in Malaysia and living with his mother Tan Geok Kuan, also a Malaysian, in a house 500 meters from school, was last seen by his mother when he left the house, telling her he would walk to school with Chin Ann, who had come to fetch him. Geok Kuan found it unusual as Hong Huat typically wanted his mother to accompany him to school. Unfortunately, both children failed to appear in class at 12:55 PM and were never seen again.

Investigation and Search

The class teacher noticed the absence of the two boys and informed their parents. That same afternoon, after receiving a call from the school, Hong Huat’s mother and Chin Ann’s parents arrived at the school. Wang Piwei, the last person to see Chin Ann, reported his absence to the teacher. Initially, the teacher thought the boys had skipped school, but this was odd since they were not troublemakers and had never played truant. Hong Huat had even secured the top spot in his math exam.

By 7 PM, after failing to find the boys, their parents reported them missing to the police. A search around the school area ensued for days but yielded no clues. The police distributed thousands of missing children posters across Singapore, urging the public to provide any information about the boys. Since May 1988, two years after their disappearance, over 100 people were interviewed by the police.

In August 1986, an anonymous tip reported seeing the missing boys on Pulau Ubin, prompting 100 police officers to search the island thoroughly, but to no avail. Months later, Hong Huat’s mother returned to Kuala Lumpur to search for her son. In 1990, Geok Kuan sought help from local media and the Malaysian Chinese Association to find her son. In 1987, Singapore police extended their search to Malaysia and neighbouring countries like Indonesia and Thailand, still without success.

In November 1988, two and a half years after the boys vanished, The Straits Times in Singapore requested the help of the U.S. to create updated images of Chin Ann using facial recognition technology, based on his and his sister’s photos at age 14. In 1994, police released age-progressed images of Chin Ann and Hong Huat, now aged 20.

Reward

Despite not being wealthy, the families of Chin Ann and Hong Huat offered a reward of SG$ 1,000 each for any information about their children’s whereabouts. This reward increased to SG$5,000 in July 1986 and SG$20,000 two months later, as the families grew desperate for information.

In October 1986, Robert Kwan, Managing Director of McDonald’s Malaysia, announced a 100,000 reward for any new information on the boys’ whereabouts. Missing posters and reward details were displayed at all McDonald’s outlets across Singapore.

Theories Behind the Disappearance

Several theories emerged regarding the boys’ disappearance. One early theory suggested the boys ran away from home, but their parents denied this, stating their children were not troublesome. Both boys had not touched their allowance or savings, making it unlikely they planned to run away.

Another theory suggested the boys were kidnapped by a foreign criminal syndicate and taken abroad, possibly forced into begging after being mutilated. However, no reports of missing children matched their profiles, and there were no immigration records of the boys leaving the country.

In 1994, there were claims of sightings of the boys begging in Thailand, but these were unverified. Another theory posited the boys were kidnapped for ransom or revenge, but their parents never received any calls, and both families were not financially well-off or in conflict with others.

Other theories included the boys being killed for a ritual sacrifice. In September 1986, Chin Ann’s father received a hospital call from an unknown person claiming to have killed the boys for a religious ceremony. Hong Huat’s mother received a similar warning call. However, the boys’ bodies were never found.

Private Investigator’s Claims

In 1996, ten years after the boys’ disappearance, private investigator Henry Tay, a former police officer, revealed his investigation linked the disappearance to Hong Huat’s father, Toh Hoo Don. Hoo Don was a former gang member, and his wife, Tan Geok Kuan, was a former barmaid. They previously ran a bus company together before facing financial troubles, leading Hoo Don to sell all his buses. The couple often quarrelled and eventually divorced, with Geok Kuan gaining custody of their only son, Hong Huat. The divorce settlement required Hoo Don to pay a large sum to his ex-wife, fueling his resentment as Geok Kuan prevented him from visiting Hong Huat.

Henry theorized that Hoo Don took Hong Huat on the day he disappeared, and since Chin Ann was with him, he took him too. It was also revealed that Hong Huat was not Geok Kuan’s biological son but the son of Hoo Don and his former girlfriend, “Samsu.” Geok Kuan had taken Hong Huat and created a fake birth certificate listing herself as his mother. This claim was denied by Geok Kuan, who insisted she was the biological mother. Hoo Don had previously been detained as a suspect but was released after 24 hours due to insufficient evidence.

In 2010, the case resurfaced when an individual claimed to have seen the boys playing with a girl behind a hospital before encountering a man who identified himself as Hong Huat’s father. It was alleged that the boys were taken to Johor, where they lived in a remote village and later became gang members. However, this claim lacked substantial evidence.

To this day, the boys have not been found, and Chin Ann and Hong Huat have been officially declared deceased.