Woman falls 6 storeys: Family didn't know she had died

A woman fell to her death last Saturday, but her family did not realise what had happened until two days later.

It all began at about 2.20am on Saturday, when residents at Block 64 Kallang Bahru were jolted awake by a bang.

A resident on the fifth storey, who wanted to be known as Mr Taufik, 19, initially thought it was a gas explosion.

"It was very loud and I could feel tremors on my bed," said the student.

"I came out to look, thinking there was a gas explosion somewhere."

He then spotted 33-year-old Chen Yanlin lying face down on the grass at the foot of the block.

"Her hands were positioned as though she was trying to break her fall," he said.

"She was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and was breathing heavily when I saw her. It was obvious that she had fractures in many places."

He immediately called the police.

He said: "It was not a nice scene and no one wanted to go near."

Ms Chen was later pronounced dead by paramedics who arrived at the scene.

According to her family, the police left a note outside their flat on the sixth storey, informing them of the incident after no one answered the door.

But it was only on Monday morning that Ms Chen's mother, Madam Liang Mei Li, 55, found the note.

Speaking to Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao, Ms Chen's uncle, Mr Liang Wen Liang, 50, who is unemployed, said Ms Chen and seven others lived in the three- bedroom unit.

The seven were Ms Chen's parents, her boyfriend, her two sons, her sister and her sister's boyfriend.

It is not known why none of them had noticed Ms Chen was missing, or why they did not see the note earlier.

Madam Liang said her daughter was rebellious and had a drug problem. She also was involved with two men. "My daughter got married and had her first son, then had a second son with her boyfriend without getting divorced from her husband," she said.

She added that Ms Chen was addicted to drugs even during her confinement period after giving birth and was unrepentant.

Madam Liang does not know what the situation was between her daughter and the two men who are friends with each other.

She also does not know the whereabouts of her son-in-law.

After the family found out about Ms Chen's death, they started blaming her boyfriend for leading her astray.

Madam Liang said they then took him to Rochor Neighbourhood Police Centre and gave him up to the police for drug abuse, leading to the man's arrest.

She added that her daughter and boyfriend were jobless and would spend their days in the bedroom.

She claimed that on Friday, the couple had an argument and Ms Chen wanted to chase the boyfriend out of the flat. But he told her that he would turn over a new leaf and she let him stay.

Ms Chen's body was collected by the family yesterday at 2pm and cremated.

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

This article was first published on April 30, 2015.
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