By Chong Shin Yen and Lediati Tan

THEIR little bodies were found in a bedroom of the burnt flat, leading to speculation about whether they were still alive when the fire began.

The New Paper understands that strangulation marks have since been discovered on the siblings' necks.

It is believed that their father strangled them before setting fire to the living room of their Ang Ko Kio flat at about 9.50pm on Saturday.

And it seemed that Ng Chee Kiang, 39, wanted to be alone with his children, Xavier Ng Wei Yi, 5, and Cheryl Ng Shi Hui, 3, before the horrific events unfolded.

His wife, Madam Anni Ong, 28, was at work when he sent their Indonesian maid on an errand to deliver a family album to Madam Ong's parents and to buy some things.

Madam Ong, a saleswoman, usually gets off work at 10pm and Ng would pick up their children from her parents' flat, a few blocks away from theirs.

By the time the maid got back, the four-room flat on the sixth storey was on fire.

By then, Ng was also dying, having jumped from a ledge on the 12th storey.

Neighbours had seen him behaving oddly on the ledge earlier. He died two hours later in hospital.

Frantic

The frantic maid led police officers to the flat, repeatedly telling them that two children were still inside. What she did not know was that they were dead by then.

When the police and firefighters entered the flat, they found the siblings' bodies lying side by side on the bed in their parents' room.

Yesterday afternoon, the police were seen taking the maid away for questioning.

Not long after, at about 5.30pm, the bodies of little Xavier and Cheryl arrived home together, their identical brown coffins so tiny that they fitted into a single hearse.

Two undertakers and two relatives carried them to the wake at the void deck of their block.

Their father's coffin had arrived earlier.

The bigger coffin was placed in the centre while the two smaller ones were placed on either side of it at the void deck of Block 543, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10.

The police take the family's maid away for questioning.

The sight was too painful to bear and their mother broke down into loud sobs.

Heart-rending wailing and highpitched screams could be heard as other relatives joined in.

The children's grandmother could be heard crying out in Mandarin: "Wei Yi, granny is here. Why did you go"

"Wei Yi, you must hold Mei Mei's (younger sister) hands."

Yesterday was the first day of the five-day wake. By 4pm, about 20 friends and relatives had arrived, and within a few hours, the number had doubled.

Footprints at the 12th storey parapet where Mr Ng was seen before he fell.

It was clear that they were still trying to come to terms with the tragedy.

The day before, on Sunday, Madam Ong and a relative went to buy some new clothes for the siblings to wear on their final journey.

Milk bottles and some of their toys were placed in their coffins. There was also a Barney stuffed toy. The purple dinosaur was said to be the children's favourite television character.

Madam Ong was so distraught that she had to be supported by two relatives as she moved around at the wake. The family declined to speak to reporters.

It is not known what could have made Ng snap, though there are hints of financial problems.

It is understood the couple could also have been fighting over their relationship. According to neighbours, the family of four appeared to be close-knit and were often seen going for breakfast together on weekend mornings.

Ng, a sushi restaurant manager, was said to be a doting father who often spoke fondly of his two children. His colleague told Lianhe Wanbao that the hardworking and loving father would always pack sushi home for his two children.

"Whenever he dropped by our branch and saw us making sushi, he would point out to us which ones his children liked," said the colleague. "He sometimes told us that he would try his hand at making sushi at home for them."

A neighbour, Mrs Sajtha Abdul Manaf, 26, who lives directly above the Ngs, told The New Paper that they hardly ever heard the couple quarrelling.

Said the housewife: "They were friendly, but it seemed that they started to keep to themselves after loan sharks looked for them some time this year."

Loan sharks had written in red paint on the wall, leading to speculation that the family could have some financial problems.

Mrs Abdul Manaf said that on Saturday, at about 9.30pm, she heard the cries of a child. They came from the Ngs' unit and lasted for about two minutes.

She said: "I thought they (the kids) were being punished and didn't think much about it."

Thick smoke

Not long after, she saw smoke coming in from her kitchen window, followed by a neighbour knocking on her door to ask her to evacuate to the void deck.

"The smoke was getting thick and I quickly went downstairs," said Mrs Abdul Manaf.

She was at the open-air carpark for 20 minutes when she looked up and saw a man sitting on the 12th-storey ledge.

She said: "There was a commotion and the man was sitting there for a while before he fell in front of us."

Neigbours said that the couple moved into the flat about six years ago.

The heap of partly burnt items in their living room included some family albums and Madam Ong's clothes.

Their funeral will be held on Thursday afternoon.

The police have classifed the case as murder-suicide and investigations are ongoing.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

tnp@sph.com.sg