By Veena Bharwani

HE AND his mum were going to have lunch at a foodcourt. He took the escalator at Raffles City Shopping Centre - and disappeared.

That was more than 20 days ago and yesterday the young Indonesian man's family got the bad news.

Mr Aries Jasuwito, 25, was found dead at a block of flats in Simei on 26 Oct - the very day he went missing.

He was here on holiday with his father, brother and mother. His passport was with his family.

As he could not be identified, his body had been lying in the morgue all this time.

His mother, Mrs Linda Jasuwito, 60, and elder sister went to identify the body after getting a call from the authorities yesterday.

They said they saw injuries on his back and are at a loss as to how he ended up in Simei.

Too distraught

The family was too distraught to speak yesterday.

The sister, Ms Erna Jasuwito, 28, a customer relations manager who lives and works in Singapore, told The New Paper yesterday when he was still listed as missing: "My mother, who was at the foodcourt, saw my brother take the escalator down. She thought he was going to the toilet.

"But she waited and waited and then got tired and went back to the hotel. Then she started to panic and wondered what had happened to my brother and called me."

They called the police at 10pm that day, said Ms Erna.

When he went missing, he had just $30 and$150,000 Indonesian Rupiah ($74). Ms Erna,who had taken leave to search for her brother, said: "We've even called our family friends in Singapore and they too haven't heard from him." Ms Erna said she had also called her brother's handphone countless times.

But since he didn't pay for the roaming service, she was unable to reach him. As his body lay in the morgue, Ms Erna and his mother were frantically handing out flyers to hospitals and calling friends to see if they have heard from him.

Flyers

Ms Erna went from hospital to hospital giving out flyers with a picture of Mr Aries and information about him.

She went to Mount Elizabeth Hospital, National University Hospital, Singapore General Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital to distribute them.

Mrs Jasuwito spent countless sleepless nights even as the search to locate her son turned desperate.

In the end, their worst fears came true.

The family had come to Singapore on 21 Oct and stayed at Carlton Hotel in Bras Basah Road.

Mr Aries' father and elder brother returned to Bali the next day while his mum stayed back with him.

His father runs a fabric and curtains business in Bali and also has a factory there.

veenab@sph.com.sg