KUALA LUMPUR - The family of Una Angelina Oliveiro can at last find closure.

On Oct 6, 2009, the Kuala Lumpur High Court sentenced two men to the gallows for murdering the actress.

Make-up artist Esma Faizul Zainul Nor, 38, (top right in montage) and Mohd Fazli Ismail, 27, who is unemployed, were convicted of murdering Una on Nov 14, 2001.

On that fateful day, the duo went on a murderous rampage in a posh Kuala Lumpur enclave. One of them held Una from behind while the other viciously took her life away. The Filipino maid found the mother of three slumped in the dining room at her bungalow home in Jalan Bukit Travers, Brickfields.

Una had 12 stab wounds on her body, and had died from massive haemorrhage as a result of being knifed six times in the chest. She was 44. 

As tragic as Una’s death was, those who knew her would want to celebrate the person she was before her life was brutally cut short.

Una, of Chinese and English parentage, was born in Singapore and was one of four siblings. She had two sisters and a brother.

Sparkling personality

While working as a public relations practitioner in Singapore, Una met her future husband, Heiner Kirchhubel, through friends. The couple relocated to Kuala Lumpur in 1993 where Una expanded into theatre production and also became a TV actress.

She had played the role of "Opah" in the TV2 sitcom Kipas Anggun and also gained fame acting in such plays as Emily of Emerald Hill, A Flight Delayed and Occasional Orchid.

Kirchhubel described his wife as “a very charismatic and energetic person with a sparkling personality.”

It was love at first sight, the Danish textile businessman told the Singapore Sunday Times shortly following Una’s death.

Others who knew Una were drawn to her go-getter spirit and her joyful and assertive nature.

Among them was veteran actress Azean Irdawaty .

According to Azean, Una was also known among her peers as "7-Eleven" because she would always stash foodstuff in her bag. If anyone was hungry during rehearsals, they just had to look for Una, she recalled fondly.

Norina Yahya, a close friend who had worked with Una on several plays, said she had an offbeat sense of humour and a sharp tongue that would not spare those who did not live up to her expectations.

At times however, Una would be too generous for her own good as she was prone to help anyone who came to her with a sob story, said Norina. 

Stabbed to death at home

Kipas Anggun co-star Sandra Sodhy echoed the same sentiment:. "Una lived life for her friends, and if someone were to go to her, frantically asking for help, she was the kind who would drop everything to help."

The day Una died, Kirchhubel and the children left for Penang on a holiday. She was supposed to have joined them the next day.

But half-an-hour after her family began their journey, Una was gone - stabbed to death in her own home.

Police said cash and valuables had been taken from the house.

It was revealed during the murder trial that Oliveiro and her maid knew Esma. Fazli was caught a week after the murder. Esma managed to evade the police for two years before he was also arrested.

The trial began on June 4 last year and saw 20 prosecution witnesses taking the stand before justice was served on Oct 6.

Una’s remains have been cremated and buried in Singapore.

In presenting a simple eulogy for his beloved wife eight years ago, Kirchhubel, who died last year, ended with the words: "Remember Una".