At a dinner in Singapore in 2004, then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad famously said: 'If you want to murder and get away with it, come to Malaysia.'
Dr Mahathir was taking a dig at Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who had earlier caused a ruckus by warning Singaporeans visiting Malaysia to watch out for 'murderous thugs'.
The audience laughed, but Dr Mahathir's words are coming home to roost as cases of rapes and murders in Malaysia rise relentlessly.
On Sunday a body was found in a ditch minus a leg and a hand, and on Monday a Chinese hairdresser was raped and murdered in her salon.
Then on Tuesday, a dismembered Singaporean businessman's body was found inside a fridge in a luxury condominium - the latest case to grip the nation with its gory details of dismembered body parts.
On average, eight females are raped and three people killed each day - figures experts say are way too high for a country with 26 million people. Between 1997 and 2002 the daily average was three rapes and one murder, but from 2003 the figures started to climb.