 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
ESCAPE GONE WRONG
Singapore  JASMINE Seah was the sort of girl with a lot to live for. In school, the 15-year-old was popular, had many friends, was well-liked by teachers, and was doing well in her studies. The girl, who was of Thai-Singapore parentage, stood out because of her cutie-pie looks. She had a boyfriend and even took up a job as a part-time waitress. Then, barely a fortnight ago, she did something foolish. She had a quarrel with her mother, who stopped her from going out when it was late at night. Unhappy, Jasmine decided to sneak out from the window of her fourth-storey flat after midnight. It was not known what her parents were doing then. But while trying to climb out of the kitchen window, she appeared to have slipped or lost her grip. She fell four floors and lay unconscious. The incident happened at Block 531, Bedok North Street 3 in the early hours of 3 Jun. A police spokesman said they received a call about the incident at about 1.30am. Jasmine was rushed to Changi General Hospital but was pronounced dead at 2pm. Police are investigating the case as an unnatural death. Click to see larger image When The New Paper on Sunday team visited Jasmine's family last week, they were still in shock. Her Thai mother, who declined to be named, said: 'She was just a kid. During the old kampung days, kids would sneak out from the windows to play when parents don't let them go out of the house. 'But the houses we live in today are different.' Tears welled up in her eyes and she refused further comment. Jasmine has a younger sister. GOOD DAUGHTER Jasmine's father said she was a good daughter and he never had to worry about her schoolwork. She was a Secondary 3 student at Pasir Ris Secondary School and a member of the school's National Cadet Corp squad. 'Now that she is gone, we don't want to talk about her,' her father said in Mandarin. Jasmine's boyfriend could not be reached for comment. Before she died, Jasmine had worked briefly as a part-time waitress at cafe-bar George's in East Coast. A few hours before she fell to her death, she had called a manager there. The 21-year-old manager, who wanted to be known only as Gilbert, told The New Paper on Sunday: 'She had called to say that she couldn't work anymore, but she did not give any reason for her resignation.' He said Jasmine had worked for only two nights. 'After she said she was leaving, she asked if she could collect her two nights' pay. I told her 'yes' and told her to come after 11pm,' Gilbert recalled. 'She did not turn up.' Gilbert learned about Jasmine's death the day after she fell. He handed her salary, about $80, to her parents. Gilbert added: 'At her wake, her aunt told me that she had a quarrel with her mother who refused to let her go out that night. It's a pity that she died this way.' Also at the wake was Mrs Lee-Yap Foong Mui, the school's vice-principal, who was there with some of Jasmine's classmates. She told The New Paper on Sunday that Jasmine was a 'well-behaved girl'. 'She was a cheerful girl and her grades were above average,' Mrs Lee said. ALL DRESSED UP A neighbour, who wanted to be known as only Mr Lee, said he saw Jasmine lying motionless at the foot of the block and she was all dressed up, with her handbag and handphone in her hand. Mr Lee, who is in his 40s, was watching a movie on TV when he heard a loud thud. 'About five minutes later, I heard a woman screaming from upstairs and she ran down the stairs. She was hysterical.' The owner of a provision shop at Jasmine's block remembered her. 'It's a pity. She used to frequent the Internet shop next door and bought drinks from me. She has a pretty face that you'll not forget.' Labels: Misadventure
Man drowns at Pasir Ris Fisherman's Village
Singapore  Man drowns at Pasir Ris Fisherman's Village ADVERTISEMENT SINGAPORE: A man has drowned at Pasir Ris Fisherman's Village - his body was recovered early Saturday morning. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) says it was alerted to the incident just after midnight. Divers, ambulance and other support vehicles were dispatched to Pasir Ris Fisherman's Village, eight minutes after the first call. SCDF rescuers immediately deployed its amphibious vehicle to comb the shoreline. Police Coast Guard boats were also at the scene. Amidst poor visibility, at about 2.30am, SCDF DART divers spotted and retrieved the body of a Chinese man. He was found approximately 60 metres from where it was reported that someone had jumped into the sea. Paramedics pronounced the man dead at 3am. - CNA/yy Labels: Drown
Fallen tree outside Funan Centre slows morning traffic
Singapore  SINGAPORE: Heavy rain on Friday morning uprooted a tree on North Bridge Road, causing traffic to slow down, almost to a standstill, outside Funan Centre. No one was injured in the incident. Police said they received a call at about 10 in the morning. The National Parks Board was notified. It took them some two hours to clear the tree, before traffic resumed to normal. - CNA/yy Labels: Nature
Did slain boy's mum die of broken heart?
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
'We didn't want to disturb him'
Singapore  FOR two hours on Saturday night, a dead man was slumped at a table in a Clementi hawker centre. But hawkers and customers were oblivious to it as they continued cooking or eating. They thought he was either drunk or asleep because they were used to seeing him in that state. But when several people later tried to wake Mr Feng Han Teng, 65, he did not respond. Paramedics pronounced him dead at 11.45pm. A drinks stall hawker, who gave her name only as Madam Koh, told The New Paper that Mr Feng was a familiar face at the hawker centre. She said: 'He used to order beer from my stall and food from others. But in recent months, he stopped drinking beer and ordered only soft drinks.' She said she saw Mr Feng on Saturday at around 8pm, when he ordered a can of soft drink from her. After finishing it, he left about an hour later. She said: 'I saw him struggling to walk. He stopped by another table and tried to balance himself.' Mr Feng then walked around the corner and sat down at a table. He used his hand to prop up his head. SLUMPED Other hawkers later saw him with his head slumped over the table. One of them was Mr Ong, who runs a western food stall. Mr Feng Han Teng He said: 'We often saw him in that position, after he had had some beer. We didn't want to disturb him so we just left him alone. We were shocked to learn later that he was dead.' Mr Feng lived in a flat at Block 367, Clementi Avenue 2 with a friend, Mr Xu Qing Fa, 54. He told Shin Min Daily News at the mortuary yesterday morning that he last saw Mr Feng at around 7pm at their flat. Mr Feng was asleep when he left the flat. He found out about his friend's death only when the police went to the flat at around 1am yesterday. Mr Xu, a security guard, said Mr Feng was a retiree who was careful with his money. He said Mr Feng kept mostly to himself and rarely spoke about his family. He had also been complaining about pain from a suspected tumour in his waist area. Sometimes, Mr Feng would wake up in the middle of the night, crying loudly from the acute pain, said Mr Xu. He added that Mr Feng had a daughter who last visited him two weeks ago, together with her 4-year-old daughter. Mr Xu also said that Mr Feng, who was divorced around 10 years ago, used to live with his daughter. But they stopped doing so when she moved to Punggol. Now, he does not know how to contact her. He said: 'I hope she will contact me after she sees this report.' Mr Xu said he and some friends have pooled some money to pay for the funeral. Police have classified it as unnatural death. Labels: Old News |
