The Lonely Millionaire and the Desperate Nurse

Dawn breaks over Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, where 58-year-old Richard Tan, a self-made tech mogul with a $200 million fortune, collapsed and died.

His wife, Althia Baky, 28, a college-educated nurse from Tarlac Province, Philippines, was found beside him. The official cause was cardiac arrest, but the final, terrifying truth carried a price tag of $15 million.

Richard Tan, disillusioned by an expensive divorce and the intense loneliness of the ultra-wealthy, sought companionship through Singapore Hearts, an elite matchmaking agency. He desired a traditional wife who valued family devotion over separate bank accounts.

Across the ocean, Althia Baky, the valedictorian daughter of a jeepney driver, faced a crisis: her 16-year-old brother, Carlo, needed immediate dialysis treatments costing $1,800 per month, a sum impossible to earn on her $400 monthly nurse salary.

Desperation, fueled by a corporate algorithm recognizing her demographic, led her to Singapore Hearts.

The agency’s pitch was seductive: wealth, security, and medical support for her family, in exchange for companionship and the role of a traditional wife.

The humiliation of the purity verification burned her, but her brother Carlo’s pale face in the hospital bed made dignity irrelevant.

The Transaction of Affection and the Wolfsbane Research

Richard courted Althia with focused intensity, using private yacht trips and designer shopping excursions. The money started flowing immediately—$10,000 for Carlo’s first month of treatment.

Althia performed the role of the appreciative, traditional partner flawlessly. Richard was convinced he was the savior whose wealth solved problems.

The proposal came with a heavy $150,000 diamond ring and a 40-page prenuptial agreement detailing the transaction: a $15 million payout after 10 years, $8,000 monthly allowance, and a $10 million life insurance policy naming her as the beneficiary.

Althia signed every page, recognizing that the guaranteed payout provided security her family needed, even if the marriage was a gilded cage.

The first six months of marriage revealed Richard’s gentle nature to be something darker: control wrapped in concern.

He monitored her phone, scrutinized her expenses, and constantly delayed transferring the promised condo, using it as leverage to maintain her dependence. Althia realized she was purchasing her family’s survival with her own imprisonment.

The breaking point arrived when Althia found emails revealing Richard’s close emotional intimacy with a business partner, Amanda Co.

When she confronted him, he cruelly reduced her allowance from $8,000 to $5,000 as “punishment,” ensuring her financial dependence remained absolute.

Faced with a decade of psychological imprisonment and a tightening financial noose, Althia began meticulous research. Her fingers typed four critical words into her search bar: “Undetectable poisons, symptoms, heart attack.”

Her nursing background proved invaluable. She researched Aconotine, the primary alkaloid in Wolfsbane (Aconitum) plants, which causes cardiac arrhythmia that perfectly mimics a natural heart attack in patients with hypertension.

She concluded the math was simple: the life insurance policy provided a guaranteed $10 million payout, while the prenup required a decade of submission.

The Calculated Act of Ultimate Violence

The transformation from theoretical research to actual planning took three months of meticulous, systematic preparation.

Althia acquired the Wolfsbane specimen labeled as an ornamental species, dried the roots in the penthouse oven, and processed them into a concentrated powder using a dedicated coffee grinder.

She conducted a terrifying test run, adding a minute quantity to Richard’s green tea one morning, observing that he complained of mild nausea but blamed his dinner.

Her journal entries, later recovered by digital forensics, documented her psychological descent and calculation: “The life insurance is active now. $10 million.

That’s security for my entire family for generations. The math is simple, even if the morality isn’t.”

The execution was scheduled for the morning of March 15th, 2022. At 4:30 a.m., Althia quietly rose, extracted the lethal dose of the white powder, and prepared Richard’s green tea. The ritual was so established that deviation would have seemed suspicious.

At 6:45 a.m., Richard joined her, complimenting the breakfast. Althia smiled, poured his tea, and watched him drink the final ingredient.

At 7:23 a.m., Richard’s face went pale, his pupils dilated with panic as he gripped the table, breathing in sharp gasps. Althia, the trained nurse, watched him collapse, recognizing the catastrophic internal failure.

She waited precisely 90 seconds, then pulled out her phone and dialed 995 with fingers that trembled authentically now, the adrenaline finally breaking through her calculated calm.

Conviction and the Legacy of the “Gilded Cage”

Paramedics administered cardiac drugs that Althia knew would actually worsen the Aconotine poisoning. At Singapore General Hospital, she maintained her flawless performance of a grieving wife.

However, Dr. Lim Wei Ming, the forensic pathologist, ordered extended toxicology screening, sensing the pattern of damage was unusual.

Three days later, the results confirmed trace amounts of Aconotine, transforming the routine investigation into potential homicide.

Detective Inspector Sarah Co’s investigation was devastatingly thorough. Internet history revealed months of research into undetectable poisons, and the digital recovery of Althia’s encrypted journal provided a road map of premeditation.

Althia’s immediate confession during interrogation—”I researched the plants and the poison, but I never meant to actually do it”—was a partial admission that proved legally disastrous, acknowledging guilt while minimizing intent.

The High Court trial found Althia guilty of first-degree fatal assault, citing the overwhelming evidence of premeditation, the systematic planning, and the acquisition of the poison.

Justice Tan Sriamad sentenced Althia Baky to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 20 years before parole eligibility.

The life insurance claim was denied due to exclusion clauses, and the prenup was voided by her criminal conviction.

Richard’s $200 million estate was divided between his children, who established the Richard Tan Foundation supporting exploited foreign workers—an ironic, lasting legacy born from their father’s tragic mistake.

The broader impact led to new regulations for international matchmaking services, acknowledging that “gilded cage operations” where wealth conceals coercion required systemic reform.

Althia Baky’s story remains a cautionary study of how financial desperation and systemic exploitation can tragically transform a good person into the individual responsible for a fatal outcome.