By Bernard See

NIBONG TEBAL: Former Bukit Tambun assemblyman Lai Chew Hock could only watch in horror as his wife Thor Joo Lee was stabbed at least four times during a robbery outside their home.

He rushed her to the Loh Guan Lye Specialists Centre on the island but she succumbed to her injuries soon after.

Post-mortem showed Joo Lee's main artery had been severed when she was stabbed in the heart.

Penang CID chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Wan Abdullah Tuanku Said said police were hot on the trail of the assailants.

"This was the third time Joo Lee had been confronted by robbers. She was tailed to the family petrol kiosk on two occasions but the robbers fled empty-handed when her workers came to her aid," said her brother Philip, 24.

This time, however, the robbers had followed Joo Lee from the petrol station that was about 1km away from her home in Taman Indah here.

As she drove into the porch at 11.20pm on Monday night, a man tried to grab her handbag through an open window. Joo Lee, 46, put up a fight and was stabbed several times in the chest, abdomen and shoulder.

Lai, who was at the balcony on the upper floor to greet his wife, said he saw a heavily-built man attacking her and shouted at him to leave her alone.

After stabbing Joo Lee, the man grabbed her handbag containing RM14,000 in cash and escaped on a motorcycle ridden by an accomplice. Two others on another motorcycle followed them.

Lai, 44, has offered a RM50,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

It was an emotional scene at the Penang Hospital Mortuary as Joo Lee's parents, siblings and children – Samantha, 20, Jason, 18, Amanda, 17 and Andrew, 11 – waited for her body to be released after the post-mortem.

Among those who extended their condolences to the family yesterday was Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

He urged the Federal Government to speed up the installation of 48 CCTVs in Penang to help the police fight crime in view of the inadequate police personnel for regular police patrol.