Mother charged with toddler's death

Mother charged with toddler's death

SINGAPORE - Three hours after a woman was rescued from the sea off East Coast Park on Monday evening, the body of a 17-month-old boy was found off nearby Bedok Jetty.

Police have arrested the woman, 44. She was charged with murder yesterday.

The woman, Lim Ann Nee, is the dead toddler's mother, Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao reported.

In a statement yesterday, the police said that Coast Guard officers came across the woman struggling in the sea off East Coast Road at about 6pm on Monday.

She was taken to shore safely, and conveyed in a conscious state to the Singapore General Hospital for treatment, the police added.

Later that evening, at about 9.20pm, the police said they received a call informing them of a toddler's body seen floating near Bedok Jetty. The boy was retrieved from the water and pronounced dead by paramedics.

Both mother and child were not clothed when found, according to a report in Chinese evening paper Shin Min Daily News.

The toddler's maternal grandfather, who is in his 70s, said in the Shin Min report that his daughter and grandchild had gone for a walk at a park at around 4pm on Monday. He last spoke to Lim at about 2pm via video chat.

The grandfather said his daughter had recently lost her job at an IT company, and was looking for work. She married her Caucasian husband five years ago.

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This incident is the third mishap to occur along Singapore's eastern coast in as many days.

On Sunday afternoon, Mr Goh Chuan Kiet, 23, an SIM Global Education undergraduate, went missing off Changi, while paddle-boarding with members of his university's windsurfing club.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said yesterday that search and rescue operations for Mr Goh, a Singaporean, would carry on through the night.

Around noon on Monday, the police received a call that a 23-year-old Vietnamese student had disappeared after he went swimming off East Coast Park.

His body was retrieved off East Coast Park yesterday morning and he was pronounced dead by paramedics. The police classified the case as an unnatural death.

adrianl@sph.com.sg


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