Brother-in-law charged with Malaysian woman's death in Sydney

An Australian man was charged in Sydney yesterday with the murder of a Chinese-Malaysian businesswoman at her home there in a case that is more than two decades old.

Gerard Phillip Caleo, the brother-in-law of Rita Caleo was charged in court yesterday, foreign media including Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph reported.

The 42-year-old was arrested by homicide detectives after he arrived at the Sydney International Airport from Kuala Lumpur on Aug 15.

Gerard, who resides in Thailand, is the general manager of the Hard Rock Café in Phuket. He was just 18 years old when he allegedly stabbed Rita to death in the bathroom of her luxury apartment in the wee hours of Aug 10, 1990, while her four-year-old son and baby daughter, were sleeping in the next room.

The children’s live-in nanny heard noises from the main bedroom before finding the body at 1.30am.

At the time of murder, Rita’s husband Mark Caleo was working at one of his two Italian restaurants in Sydney.

Rita is the daughter of former Sarawak CID chief Peter Chye.

Just 10 months before her death, her wealthy brother, Dr Michael L. Chye, was gunned down in a gangland-style shooting while he was sitting in his Mercedes Benz car parked inside the garage of his mansion in the upmarket suburb of Woollahra in Sydney.

Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Rita had apparently sent her solicitor a sealed envelope three months before her death.

The envelope read: "To be opened only if my death is unnatural."

After her murder, the envelope was opened by her solicitor in the presence of detectives. She accused two people of organising her brother’s killing, and that if she died unnaturally, the same people would be responsible for it.