The Misery Machine - The Case of Canny Ong

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

This week, Drewby and Yergy head to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to discuss the case of Canny Ong, a beautiful young woman who returned to her home country with her husband, Brandon, after her father was seeking treatment for cancer. But what should have been a a trip filled with memories of family and friends quickly turned into a case of mistaken identity that turned deadly... Support Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Join Our Facebook Group: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muar_%28town%29 https://gempak.com/rojakdaily/news/6-chilling-crime-cases-malaysia-shook-us-core-97136 https://iluminasi.com/bm/5-pembunuhan-paling-kejam-yang-pernah-berlaku-di-malaysia.html https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/canny-ong-obituary?id=27698344 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Najib_Aris https://sfx.com.my/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_48aRfiDos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADauJqzC2P4 https://www.scmp.com/article/429145/trial-fails-clear-mystery-gruesome-murder-rape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kajang_Prison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcKhFOHZeXs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Fandey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_48aRfiDos&t=215s https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Scene-Asia-Forensic-Evidence/dp/9814634328 https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrime/comments/qeuiml/kidnapper_and_victim_escape_police_chase_victims/ https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/MYS/malaysia/murder-homicide-rate#:~:text=Malaysia%20murder%2Fhomicide%20rate%20per,100K%20population%20for%202019%20was

This is every woman's worst nightmare, and for her, it came true. You're out by yourself in public, and some random stranger decides you're it. You're going to be the target of their evil urges. And what's worse? Over 60 witnesses saw that you were being taken, including law enforcement, and nobody did anything about it. Kani Ong-Lay-Kien was born on July 18, 1974, in Ippo-Parok-Mal. Malaysia. She was the second and youngest daughter to parents Aung B. Jang and Purley Visvanathan

and had two sisters. Caney was of Malay Chinese and Indian descent, which are the three major ethnic groups that make up the country of Malaysia. According to those closest to her, she was described as a dutiful daughter and considerate. After high school, Kenny chose to travel abroad to continue her studies. She settled in Hawaii, where she pursued a degree in economics at Hawaii Pacific University. After she graduated, she traveled to Los Angeles, California, to seek employment as a marketing analyst. It was there that she met her future husband, Brandon, Aung.

Brandon was from Singapore, born to ethnic Chinese parents. The family had immigrated to the state sometime in the 1980s. After marrying in 2001, Kenny and Brandon settled into a home in San Diego. At the time of our story, Kenny was just 28 years old. She also held a black belt in karate, which will be an important note as her story progresses. On June 1st, 2003, Kani and Brandon traveled to Malaysia to visit her father who was being treated for cancer.

After a successful surgery, her father's condition was improving, so it was only going to be a short trip. A couple was due to return to California two weeks later on June 14. The day before they were due to fly home, Kani and Brandon went out for steak and fried crabs with friends and family. The party went to Monty's restaurant and wine bar located in the Bangsar Shopping Center. Bangsar is a neighborhood within the city of Kuala Lumpur and is considered to be a residential suburb. It's about four kilometers southwest of the city center and is adjacent to Brickfields, also known as Little India. Noticing that her mother seemed a bit tired, Kani offered to drive her home and then returned to the restaurant to continue the farewell party. Now, Kuala Lumpur is well known for its malls and shopping centers.

Many are several stories high and contain hundreds of stores and restaurants. To accommodate parking, oftentimes the garages are located underground. This was the case for this particular shopping center. Rather than have her tired mother make the trip down to the lower levels, she and one of Kani's sisters waited at the auto pay machine while Kani retrieved the car, a purple proton tiara. However, Kani never returned. Before we get into what happened to Kani, we need to first talk about Ahmad Najee bin Aris.

Ahmad was born in 1976 in Muar, Malaysia, and was the second of four siblings. He was described as a man of good character and responsible in his work. Muar is a town situated on the Strait of Malacca. For reference, it's about two and a half hours drive south from where our story took place. According to reports, Amma dropped out of high school so that he could work to support his family. In 1998, he made the journey north to Kuala Lumpur to look for work. He settled into the residential neighborhood of Pantai Dalam and later married and had two children. In 2000, he took a job as an airplane cabin cleaner for Malaysia Airlines.

But on June 13, 2003, Ahmad wasn't at work. He was in the parking garage of the Bangsar Shopping Center. Kani's mother and sister started to worry when 20 minutes went by and she had not returned with the car. They called her cell phone twice. First call was not answered and the second went straight to voicemail. Concerned, the pair ventured down into the parking garage only to find that Kani's car was missing. After pleading with the security guards, Kani's family and friends viewed the security footage that would confirm their worst nightmares. Annie had been carjacked by an unknown man.

That man was Ahmad Najee Benares. Some reports even indicated that the footage captured the car crashing through the garage's security barrier. It took over an hour for a police report to be filed on her behalf. Around midnight, police actually located Kani's Purple Pro chest. in the Kalana Jaya neighborhood. This would have been approximately an 18-minute drive southwest into the neighboring city of Pataling Jaya. Upon approaching the car, they noticed that Ahmaud and Kani were inside. Lance Corporal Super Monium Ravi Chandran asked for their IDs, which they provided to them.

When asked to step out of the car, Amad refused and stopped Kani from doing so. Lance Corporal Ravi Chandran would later report that Kani was making strange gestures at him, but he couldn't understand what she meant by them. He later realized that she was gesturing for help. Rather than comply with the officer, Amad fled with Kani still inside and a chase ensued. Shots were fired, but unfortunately the officer soon lost sight of the Purple Proton. However, Lance Corporal Ravi Chandran still was in possession of both of their IDs, which would prove to be a pivotal clue as this case unfolded.

This wasn't the last time that Kani and her kidnapper were spotted. One of the bullets had struck a tire and Ahmad stopped along Jalan Sungai way to change it. At this point, they had made it about 8.2 kilometers away from the traffic stop. Witness Amina Ishak and her brother-in-law stopped to offer assistance, and Amad borrowed their jack to remove the blown-out tire. During this time, Kani began gesturing to Amina for help just like she had done prior with the officer. Knowing something wasn't quite right, Amina jotted down the proton's plate number WFN 6871,

just before Amad drove off again. Along with her brother-in-law, she reported the incident, the police at the Subong Jaya police station. Between 1 and 5 a.m., Amad parked Canny's car under a bridge on Jalan Kalang Lama in Kuala Lumpur. At this point, Amad back tracked about 14.4 kilometers. There, he violently essayed the young woman inside of her car and stabbed her twice with a knife, killing her. Ahmad then stashed Kani's body in a narrow hole on the side of the highway.

Some reports have described this hole as a sewer. or drainage pipe. He then closed off the hole with two large tires containing cement. It's unclear where the tires came from, but it's been reported that the bridge was an active construction site. After abandoning the purple proton, Amad fled in a taxi. He would later return to the site in an attempt to destroy the evidence of his crimes. According to reports, Ahmad purchased petrol, poured it down the sewer pipe containing Candy's body and lit it a blaze. What Ahmad didn't know is that hours prior, the attack was witnessed by a van driver named Azizan Ismail. The driver mistakenly believed that Ahmad and Kani were just two young lovers having

sex and chose not to intervene. However, after Ahmad abandoned the vehicle, Azizan decided to burglarize it. He stole Kani's cell phone and later sold it, which led to him and two of his friends being arrested after police traced the signal. Azizan would later become one of 69 witnesses that testified against Ahmad now. You might be thinking, how could this be? How could there be so many witnesses in such a short period of time? While this all has to do with the layout of Kuala Lumpur and Pataling Jaya, in the route that Ahmad chose to take to evade police.

For those who are unaware, although Ahmad made stops in different residential suburbs, these areas are still extremely urban and have high traffic. There are not little villages. What would normally be a five-minute drive could take an hour depending on the time of day. So if there was a shootout and a chase, there would absolutely be witnesses. On June 17, 2003, Kani's remains were discovered by a construction site manager who had come to work on the bridge.

According to reports, she had a cloth tied around her neck, her hands were crossed over her chest, and her legs were dangling from the pipe. Police quickly found Kani's proton abandoned. nearby and her body was taken to a lab for forensic testing and identification by her friends and family members. Yes, you did hear that correctly, Canney's friends and family, to identify her body in the state that it was in. She had been killed three days prior, partially burned and stuffed into a pipe in the Malaysian summer heat, which can have temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit

and humidity averaging 80%. According to her friend, Neural, I recognized the jeans on the body the jeans Kani was wearing on that night. She had borrowed them from me. At autopsy, it was found that the stab wounds didn't actually kill Kani. She had been strangled to death, presumably with the cloth that was found around her neck. In addition, the presence of male DNA was also observed on her body. After reviewing the overwhelming evidence, including CCTV footage from the parking garage, the two IDs that were left behind at the traffic stop, eyewitness accounts, and the male DNA sample,

police decided it was time to make an arrest. Ahmad was taken into custody on June 20th, where he was charged with the murder and essay of Kan Niyang. He made a full confession, even taking the police on a full tour of where his crimes took place. Born to Amad, this wasn't a crime of opportunity, but rather a case of mistaken identity. He had traveled to the Bankstar Shopping Center

with the full intention of seeking revenge on his former employer, who apparently looked a lot like Kani. He only realized his mistake after Lance Corporal Ravi Chandran took their IDs. But rather than let this poor woman go, he decided to carry on with his wicked plan. When word of the crimes made it to the public, all of Malaysia was shocked. Furthermore, the police investigation and in particular the DNA evidence that they found linked a mod to at least four prior essay cases that took place in parking garages. Kani was by no means his first victim. However, the police were not able to charge him with these crimes as many of the victims were married

and didn't want their names associated with not only the crimes against them, but an active murder case. One point that I want to make abundantly clear to everyone out there is that Malaysia isn't some sort of hellscape that's dangerous for travelers. When we discuss stories that occur outside of the West, such as when we covered the cases of Giotic Singh and Dr. Priyanka Reddy, general safety as a whole tends to be a common topic that is brought up in our comments section.

Well, we're here to tell you that despite the horrible case that we just absolutely, outlined for you, Malaysia is an amazing country full of kind people. Their murder rate is 0.72 per 100,000 people, which is one of the lower rates in the world. For comparison, Canada's murder rate is 2.07 per 100,000 people, and the United States is 6.81. We visited Kuala Lumpur in February of 24 and had no cell service whatsoever. You'd think that would have been really scary, but it was I never felt unsafe there. During our stay, we saw some amazing sights, tried some amazing food. The most dangerous thing that happened to me was that I almost got bit by a mama monkey at the Batu caves because I walked too close to her baby.

Three months after Candy's senseless essay and murder, Amad's trial began on September 15, 2003. He was represented by Mohamed Hanif Ben Katri Abdullah, who was described as a top lawyer in Malaysia. Now, they don't mess around with serious crimes there, as no parole is considered for crimes as heinous as these. In fact, under Section 302 of the Malaysian Penal Code, if found guilty of murder alone, the mandatory sentence is death. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Amad pled not guilty and claimed that the police tortured him in order to get a false confession out of him. However, the magistrate that was present the day that Amad confessed testified that he seemed

relaxed, showed no signs of physical manhandling, and made the confession without a lawyer present of his own volition. Aside from the voluntary confession, DNA findings were also entered into evidence. This not only included the male DNA found on Canney's body, but traces of Canney's DNA that were found on the clothes Amad was wearing at the time of the kidnapping. In addition, the cloth that was found wrapped around Caney's neck was the same kind of cloth that airplane cabin cleaners used on the job. If you recall from earlier, we outlined that Amad was employed by Malay. Asia Airlines in that capacity. Finally, criminologist and psychiatrist Dr. Gashina Ayumat Sot testified to Amad's mental state.

She confirmed that he showed no signs of psychosis and had good relationships with his family, colleagues, and neighbors. However, Attorney Hanif tried to prove that his client couldn't possibly be the killer. But rather than try to prove his point through hard evidence, he chose to victim blame Kani. He questioned why Kani hadn't attempted to escape with. when Ahmad stopped on the side of the highway to change the tire, or why she hadn't attempted to fight him off

despite having a black belt and karate. The prosecution offered up the fact that Kani was scared and didn't know where she was in the early morning hours, but really, there's a much easier explanation for all of this. If you pay attention to some of the CCTV footage, Ahmad has a very large knife that is clearly visible. To add insult to injury, Attorney Hanif proposed that Kani and Amma,

were having a torrid affair, and that the encounter was consensual. He theorized that her death was accidental and was simply a case of erotic asphyxia gone wrong. The prosecution was quick to shut down this theory, citing the fact that an encounter of this nature wouldn't normally occur in a car on the side of the road where people could see them. In a last-ditch effort, Attorney Haneef speculated that other parties could be responsible for Kani's death, motivated by her family's financial status. He also argued that due to the weight of the cement-filled tires, Ahmad couldn't have possibly committed the act alone.

Thankfully, the prosecution wasn't having any of this foolishness, and outright stated that the defense's attempt to divert blame from Ahmad to another party did not make any sense. I would be inclined to agree with their sentiments. The trial, which was supposed to last 10 days, ended up going for 52 days. Amad chose not to take the stand in his own defense. and invoked his right to remain silent. In Malaysia, the right to remain silent is not a legal option under the law as it is in America,

and the defense did not call any other witnesses to testify. According to the prosecution, if their case was left unopposed, then Ahmad ought to be found guilty of the charges he was tried for in court. And that is exactly what happened. On February 23, 2005, Ahmad Najib Benares was found guilty on both counts. The charge of S.A. he was sentenced to 20 years in prison along with 10 strokes of a cane. 20 years is the maximum sentence for S.A. in Malaysia. For the charge of murder, Amad was sentenced to death. Amad attempted to appeal his sentence twice, once on March, 2007 and then again two years later on March of 2009.

Both of these appeals were denied, effectively sealing his fate. He attempted to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, but that too was rejected. While on death row at the Khashong prison in Sungai Jalak, Amad was described by his lawyer as a good Muslim. He claimed that Amad was a better person than many civilians on the outside and that he regularly led his fellow prisoners in prayer. If you've been with us from the very beginning, then Kanjong prison might sound familiar to you. This was the same facility that held and executed Mona Fandi, the singing witch. Mona was a former Malaysian pop singer who, along with her husband, murdered state assemblymen Moslan Idris in 1993. After a failed music career, Mona turned to witchcraft and attracted many high-profile clients. Honestly, Mona should have just stuck to sing.

She really wasn't that bad at it. On September 23, 2016, Amad was executed by hanging. 13 years had passed since Cannyong's murder. We found one source that claimed in the wake of Amad's trial, Canny's loved ones had become the victims of harassment and many unsolicited and baseless conspiracy theories surrounding her death. We tried to corroborate this. with other sources and couldn't, and the source didn't explain exactly what these conspiracy theories were. Following his execution, Ahmad's body was returned to his family, and later buried the Sungai Kuntan Muslim

cemetery. Kenny Ong's murderer has been hanged to death on Friday. Amat Najib Aris was executed at Kajang prison for murdering Khanh, about 13 years ago. His body has been laid to rest at the Muslim cemetery behind Kajang Hospital. Amat Najib was charged for abducting to a 28-year-old Kenny from a shopping mall underground parking on June 13, 2003. The court also heard that Ahmad Najib and killed Kenny between 1 and 5 in the morning on June 14 at Batu 7-old Clang Road Pataling Jaya, then dumped her body into a manhole and set it on fire. On February 23, 2005, he was convicted of and murder, punishable by death by the Shah Alam High Court. Ahmad Najib lost his final appeal against his conviction on October 21, 2009.

the federal court unanimously decided to uphold his death sentence saying that the court was satisfied. There was circumstantial evidence and evidence in its entirety to come to the conclusion that it was Ahmad Najib and no one else who was responsible for what happened to Kenny that night. Ahmad Najib also failed to revoke the hanging to death decision by the Shah Alam High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court. Other than the death sentence, the courts also retained the maximum 20 years of imprisonment and 10 letters for rape the victim. A source says Ahmad Najib's family members just found out about his experience.

from the prison personnel and his mother could not have a last meet with her son as he is bedridden. Ahmad Najib's defense attorney, Mohammed Hanef Katari Abdullah, told reporters that it is not an obligation for the prison personnel to inform lawyers about the execution as the case proceedings had been concluded. Caney's case became the subject of a true crime documentary that included reenactments, as well as narration of case facts in the court proceedings. Canney's family and friends, as well as many of the police officers and legal representatives involved with the case were interviewed. In addition, Caney was featured in Australian author Liz Porter's book,

Crime Scene Asia, when forensic evidence becomes the silent witness, along with 16 other victims from Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and among others. Caney Aung's funeral was held on June 27, 2003, at St. Francis Xavier Church. We were unable to find an exact location of the church in her obituary, but there is a Catholic church of the same name in Pataling Jaya. Over 500 mourners came to pay the respects to the young woman, including family, friends, and politicians. A second memorial was held for her on July 19th at Balboa Park in San Diego. She'll forever be remembered as a vibrant, intelligent young woman who brought joy into

the lives of everyone she met, who was stolen from her family and friends by a senseless act of violence.