Did slain boy's mum die of broken heart?

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Singapore


HER life went to pieces four years ago when her only son was brutally beaten to death.

But she never gave up the search to find his killers.

But with each passing year, there were no leads and she lost hope.
Click to see larger image
Picture: Shin Min Daily News

Last Wednesday, Madam SF Lee's decomposed body was found in her Ang Mo Kio flat. She was 45.

Her body was discovered by a friend, who had been trying to contact her but failed.

Her friend, who identified himself as Mr Li, told Shin Min Daily News that he was worried because Madam Lee had not been answering his calls.

When he reached her flat, he was confronted by a decaying smell. He made a police report, and the police found the decomposed body.

At her bedside was a bottle of red wine and some pills.

Mr Li said she took to drinking and dancing to try to drown her sorrows after her son's tragic death.

He added: 'She once told a group of close friends that she had already put aside enough money to send Dao Jing to university.'

REWARD MONEY

Mr Li knew Madam Lee through a mutual friend when she was still working at a factory in Jurong.

'Back then, she came across as easy-going and very chatty,' he said.

After 19-year-old Wong Dao Jing was allegedly killed by a group of men in Lucky Chinatown Shopping Centre in February 2003, she even put up a $10,000 reward for information on the assailants.

The money came from the $20,000 she received from selling her flat in Potong Pasir, where she had lived with her son after her divorce.

When she spoke to The New Paper last February, she said it was painful to see mothers spending time with their sons.

She said: 'Knowing that I can no longer do the same thing with my son really breaks my heart.'

She also recalled the time he died: 'I was in such shock I couldn't even cry. Even when I saw his body, I couldn't believe he had died.'

She would go into his room and flip through albums containing his pictures. She kept three of his photos in her wallet, taken with his ex-girlfriend a few months before his death.

She said then that she had decided to sell her flat because living there alone had became unbearable.

She said: 'It holds too many sad memories. I couldn't stop thinking of my son.'

She then made it her life-long goal to track down her son's killers.

She said: 'There have been no leads on the case all these years. The police last told me that the culprits have fled the country. My hopes are fading as time passes. But I have to try to find the people who killed my son. I cannot let him die unjustly.'

In 2005, she approached the Crime Library for help. Mr Joseph Tan, founder of the Crime Library, told The New Paper that he used to distribute fliers together with Madam Lee in an attempt to get information on Dao Jing's death.

Mr Tan only learnt of Madam Lee's death when The New Paper contacted him yesterday.

He said: 'It's such a tragedy - she had been trying so hard to pull herself together, to pick up the pieces.'

Mr Tan said he last called her about a week ago but she didn't answer. He said she had also not responded to several SMS messages.

He told Shin Min Daily that about a month ago, Madam Lee called him to say that Malaysian police had new leads on her son's killers. But she didn't go into details.

He said: 'When I last spoke to her a few weeks ago, she asked me to promise to keep pursuing her son's case as long as I live.'

IN TOUCH

Mr Tan said that they were in touch frequently, either by calls or SMS.

He said she was taking English lessons and also a course on real estate. Sometimes, she also went to the library's victim support centre to share her experiences.

He added that though he often offered to visit her at home, she turned him down, afraid that she would 'be a burden'.

In the course of their friendship, which lasted nearly two years, he said she never stopped talking about her son.

He knew that Madam Lee had taken to drinking.

'Of course, I tried to advise her against it, but that's just like telling a gambler not to gamble,' he said.

He added that recently she was depressed over her financial situation as she had not been making enough from property deals to support herself.

She had also moved several times.

He said: 'I offered her a position working for me, but she turned me down, saying that she would rather try to make it on her own. Things were just too difficult for her - her son was a huge part of her life.'

Labels: Old News