By Kimberly Spykerman & Sujin Thomas

ONCE the coroner declared that Indonesian undergraduate David Hartanto Widjaja had killed himself, his family stormed out of court yelling to all and sundry that there was a conspiracy to cover up his 'murder'.

It was a dramatic finish to one of the longest-running hearings into a case of unnatural death, spanning 10 days and more than 30 witnesses.

State Coroner Victor Yeo yesterday took pains to answer every objection the family had about how the 21-year-old had died on March 2 at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), taking almost two hours to deliver his verdict.

The state's version, put forth by State Counsel Shahla Iqbal, was that the final-year engineering student had attacked Professor Chan Kap Luk before falling to his death.

But the family insisted it was the academic who started the tussle in his office and contended that the youth had been pushed off a 15m-high link bridge.

In the morning, lawyer Shashi Nathan, who represented the family, asked the coroner to deliver an open verdict which would indicate that there were several question marks over the case.

'It may not be so clear-cut as there are inconsistencies among the witnesses and it cannot be said with certainty that David took his own life,' he said.

In the afternoon, the coroner made it clear that he was rejecting the family's contention. 'I am in complete agreement with the assessment of the police that there is no foul play suspected after their investigations,' he said before recording his verdict of suicide.

He drew on the testimonies of pathologists, forensic experts and witnesses to conclude that Mr Widjaja had stabbed Prof Chan and then killed himself.

The youth had wounds which were inflicted during his struggle with the professor but these were not fatal or defensive. Eyewitnesses said that Mr Widjaja was alone on the bridge and three saw him fall off. There was also a video-recording of Mr Widjaja just before he fell.

Said the coroner: 'These witnesses did not know David, neither did they know about the prior incident involving David and Prof Chan in his office. There was no reason for any of these witnesses to lie in court about what they saw and heard on that fateful day.'

Another critical piece of evidence: a suicide note recovered in the youth's computer in which he talked about his struggle with studies. 'Whilst I accept that David had behaved normally to his friends and family and did not exhibit or reveal any signs of trouble, what he had written in his laptop clearly suggests that, unknown to his family and friends, not everything was going well for David.'

He did not go into why Mr Widjaja attacked Prof Chan, saying such speculation would not be 'appropriate'. But based on testimonies and their e-mail correspondence, they had a 'normal student-supervisor relationship', he said.

Given that Prof Chan was stabbed in the back, and the fingerprints on the knife handle belonged to the youth, he said it appeared that Mr Widjaja was 'the aggressor' and Prof Chan, 'the victim'.

The coroner said that while it might be 'difficult and painful' for Mr Widjaja's family to accept all that has happened, 'that is not to say that the testimonies of all the witnesses, the forensic evidence, scientific evidence and the thorough investigations conducted by the police were complete untruths and fabricated lies'.

His words did not comfort Mr Widjaja's parents, older brother and an uncle, who were in court yesterday along with a batik-clad contingent of officials from the Indonesian Embassy and friends.

After the family walked out of the courtroom, Mr Nathan apologised to the coroner for their abrupt departure, saying that they did not mean to offend him.

About 10 police officers stood watch outside the courtroom as family members let fly their dissatisfaction with the verdict, and intentions of taking other courses of action.

Prof Chan was unavailable for comment last night. An NTU spokesman said university officials who had been helping the family 'appreciate the shocked disbelief, grief and pain the family members feel'. 'Understandably, the family will need time to come to terms with the loss of their loved one.'

Coroner responds to family's points

THE family of David Hartanto Widjaja made a last-ditch attempt in court yesterday to put forward claims that their son had been 'murdered'. Here are their arguments and the coroner's reply:

STATE OF THE BODY

Widjajas: There was blood on his neck when they viewed his body in the mortuary and the multiple wounds amounting to 36 seemed more consistent with the youth fending off his attacker, Professor Chan Kap Luk, than a fall from a height.

Coroner: Accepted pathologists' evidence that there was no open wound on the neck when autopsy was performed.

'Viewings at the mortuary are purely for identification and it is the practice to wrap the body in a plastic shroud exposing only the head and neck,' he said.

David had died of multiple injuries after falling from a height. Nineteen of the wounds on his upper body were likely to have been inflicted during the struggle with Prof Chan, though 'not deliberately or intentionally'. But these wounds were neither fatal nor defensive in nature.

TESTIMONY OF EYEWITNESSES

Widjajas: NTU staff and students lied about seeing David alone on the building link bridge and falling off. They said the extent of David's injuries would not have allowed him to climb over the parapet wall onto the link bridge, let alone push himself off the ledge.

They disputed the authenticity of an eight-second video made by a witness, which showed an elevated view of a person seated alone on the link bridge. They said the person in the video was not David.

Coroner: Nine witnesses saw David sitting on the bridge that day at about the same time before his body was found on the ground floor. Three of them saw David falling off the bridge.

He said: 'Having had the benefit of observing the demeanour of these witnesses as they gave their testimonies in court, I did not detect the slightest hint of untruthfulness in their evidence.'

The video was an additional piece of objective evidence which corroborates their testimonies.

DAVID'S STATE OF MIND

Widjajas: Disputed evidence that David had written a text file dated Jan 25 and titled 'Last Word' found in his laptop.

The laptop was recovered by police at his hostel room in the presence of campus security officers. The family believes someone else might have written the note and that it may not be a suicide note.

Coroner: David's laptop was protected by a password and the note contained intimate details of his childhood and his family. In the note, David said he found life difficult and complicated after he entered university.

He said: 'The note also suggested that David had tried to struggle but he was not strong enough to continue and hence contemplated suicide.'

David had also searched online for information relating to 'suicide', 'suicide method' and 'murder method'.

Various computer games found on the laptop and evidence that David had spent many hours playing online games suggested that he was the only user of the laptop.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.