Maid hides her stillborn baby in drawer

Maid hides her stillborn baby in drawer

A 33-year-old maid from Indonesia was arrested after she gave birth to a stillborn baby boy and hid the foetus in a drawer at her employer's house.

The incident occurred on Monday at a two-storey house along Lorong Ong Lye in Serangoon.

According to Chinese evening paper Shin Min Daily News, the maid later complained to her employers that she was not feeling well.

She was taken to the KK Women's and Children's Hospital, where a doctor suspected she had recently given birth.

Upon being questioned, she admitted to delivering a baby boy who had died on birth and hiding the body in a drawer in a second-floor room at her employers' house.

The Straits Times understands her employer is Cultural Medallion winner Chew Kok Chang, also known by his pen name Chew Chang.

The poet was awarded the honour in 1991 for literature.

A police spokesman said police were alerted to the incident at 1.22pm and the baby's body was found in the drawer. He was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene.

The baby was believed to have been born prematurely at five months.

Shin Min said the woman has been working for the family - Mr Chew, who is 81, and his wife, and their daughter, her husband and 11- year-old son - for more than a year.

She is believed to have two sons.

Other maids in the area described her as being petite, and often dressed in loose clothing.

One of them told Shin Min: "She often looked unhappy and never said she was pregnant."

They added that she did not often talk to the other maids, and had been going alone to the wet market to buy groceries since last month.

Neighbours told Shin Min that they rarely saw her outdoors, except when she washed the car every week.

Police said the woman was arrested for concealment of birth by secret disposal of a dead body.

Investigations are ongoing.

lesterh@sph.com.sg


This article was first published on October 21, 2015.
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