SINGAPORE: A coroner’s court on Friday (Mar 3) declared an open verdict into the death of an unidentified man, whose body was found floating in the Kallang River nearly 18 months ago.
The body of the Chinese man, whose name and age are not known, was retrieved from the river on October 10, 2021.
There were no visible injuries on him, and a wallet found on him contained only some cash and an EZ-Link card.
He was not under the influence of drugs nor alcohol, and he was not a victim of assault as no defensive injuries were found on him.
Fingerprints lifted from his body were sent for screening, but no match was found. The EZ-Link card also proved to be a dead end, as it had not been used in the last 90 days and yielded no results.
An autopsy certified the cause of death as drowning, with coronary artery disease being a contributory factor.
His death was not natural, but the police found no evidence of foul play.
In the coroner’s hearing on Friday, the investigating officer of the case, Inspector Shawn Tan, described the efforts made to ascertain the man’s identity.
However, neither his fingerprints nor his DNA profile matched anyone in existing databases.
Three days after the man was found dead, a police news release was put out to call for witnesses or next-of-kin to come forward.
No next-of-kin approached the police, but a man named in court only as Mr Wong went to the police.
FRIEND OF THE DECEASED COMES FORWARD
Mr Wong said he was a friend of the deceased. According to Mr Wong, the man came to Singapore from Ipoh, Malaysia in the late 1980s.
He did not have a fixed abode and instead slept along 29 Hamilton Road, near a back lane and some lorries.
Mr Wong’s workplace was near where the deceased slept.
A day before the man’s death, Mr Wong had a chat with him in the back lane along 29 Hamilton Road.
He said the deceased told him that he was sick, but did not dare to visit the doctor.
Mr Wong said he did not probe much, but noticed that the other man was quieter than usual.
On Oct 10, 2021 – the day of the incident – Mr Wong went back to the same area at about 5am and noticed that his friend was not there.
He also noticed that the deceased had placed several items Mr Wong had previously purchased for him – such as shampoo and a mask – on Mr Wong’s work shelf.
Suspecting that something was not right, Mr Wong went to look for the other man.
Later that morning, a Bangladeshi worker told Mr Wong that the deceased had drowned and that there was a police tent at the scene.
Mr Wong told the police that the deceased had a sister who lived in Pasir Ris, but he had no other information on this.
The police went to Pasir Ris to make checks, but were not able to locate the deceased man’s sister.
The police then made checks with the Attorney-General’s Chambers and sought assistance from the police in Malaysia and Jakarta.
However, the police from both countries were unable to find any records matching the deceased’s fingerprints in their databases.
Mr Wong said the deceased had never expressed suicidal intentions before, but the former thought that the act of returning the items to him was the latter’s way of bidding farewell.
State Coroner Adam Nakhoda found that there was no evidence to suggest foul play in this case.
He said it was possible that the man suffered cardiorespiratory failure, fell into the river and drowned.
However, he said it was “in my view, equally possible that he deliberately entered the river with the intent of taking his life”.
“As neither circumstance can be conclusively excluded, I return a finding of an open verdict,” he said.