Man found dead in toilet cubicle

SINGAPORE - Fu Lu Shou Complex, in the heart of Bugis, is known for shops selling religious amulets and traditional Chinese medicine.

So when a naked man was found dead in a toilet in the shopping mall, it got the buzz.

On Monday, a 61-year-old man was found dead in a toilet cubicle for the handicapped on Level 3. He was naked and on his knees.

Ms Sun, 40, who sometimes visits the mall, happened to be at the mall that day. She learnt about the incident from a cleaning supervisor who had found the man.

"The man had been in the toilet for two to three hours," Ms Sun told Shin Min Daily News what the supervisor had told her.

Suspecting something was amiss, the supervisor knocked on the door and "forced open the door after getting no reply".

The man was found with his head hung and his right hand still between the railing and the wall.

Mr Hong, 46, who happened to be there when a small crowd was forming outside the cubicle, told Shin Min: "He was completely naked and motionless."

A Singapore Civil Defence Force spokesman said an ambulance was dispatched at around 3.40pm.

So who was the man?

Shop owners told The New Paper he was part of a group of elderly people who would spend all day at the mall. They were lonely, with little means but a lot of cheer.

KNOWN

Ms Low Siew Kiow, 52, the owner of a hair salon at the complex, said the man and his friends were known to the shop owners there.

She told The New Paper: "I see many of these uncles in their 60s and 70s sitting along the walkways. I see several of them sitting outside my shop every day.

"But my colleagues and I don't have the heart to chase them away. They seem like they do not have a comfortable home to go to and look very pitiful.

"Anyway, its not my business to chase them away. They are generally harmless."

Mr Tan Khok Ning, 55, the owner of a wood carvings shop on Level 3, said: "I had seen the man several times wandering alone in this shopping mall.

"I bumped into him a few times at night in the men's toilet. He was washing himself in one of the toilet cubicles.

"I believe he is homeless and I'm not surprised. There are many such lonely homeless men wandering in the shopping mall and the vicinity."

He said the man would often seek refuge in the mall, eating packets of rice sometimes donated by passers-by and shop owners.

Police are investigating the incident as a case of unnatural death.

smchia@sph.com.sg

This article was published on April 16 in The New Paper.

Get The New Paper for more stories.