The unidentified male infant who was found dead in a sanitary bin in a toilet at Tampines MRT Station four months ago was linked to three Indonesian women who had visited Singapore earlier, with one of them likely to be his mother.
However, the infant’s cause of death could not be ascertained by the Coroner’s Court, said State Coroner Marvin Bay on Thursday (Oct 20) as he recorded an open verdict in the case.
The male infant of unknown race and age was pronounced dead at 1.49pm on June 3, after he was discovered in the toilet.
A cleaner there had found the infant’s body inside a red plastic bag, which was marked with the word “Tampines”, the court heard.
She had last cleaned the toilet at 11am that same day but did not notice anything suspicious, noted investigation officer Sanjeewani Panday when she took the stand on Thursday.
Based on CCTV footage and witness accounts, the police found that three Indonesian women, who were believed to have entered Singapore to help out at a Hari Raya bazaar held in the open field near Tampines MRT station, were involved in abandoning the infant.
At 8.12am, two women identified as Ms A, 31, and Ms I, 26, had entered the toilet. Ms A was seen carrying a pink bag that appeared to contain a heavy load. But the bag seemed lighter and swayed slightly when they left the toilet some 20 minutes later.
A third woman wearing a black headscarf, identified as Ms M, 35, was seen walking from the bazaar to the toilet at about 10am and left at about 11.10am.
Further enquiries at the bazaar led the police to a stall helper who knew Ms I. Facebook exchanges between them later revealed that Ms M had admitted to Ms I that she “threw away a baby” in the women’s toilet at the train station.
The three women had entered Singapore on May 25. Ms M, who appeared pregnant in the arrival CCTV footage, left the country on June 5, while the other two left two days later.
Delivering his findings, Mr Bay said there was no basis to suspect foul play, despite the “rather callous and sadly unceremonious manner” the infant was found.
His body, which still had the umbilical cord and placenta intact, did not show signs of any deliberate traumatic injury that could have led to the infant’s death.
Post-mortem findings had estimated that the gestational age of the deceased was about 38 to 42 weeks, where the full-term infant was capable of being born alive.
Yet, the pathologist could not rule out a stillbirth and could not ascertain the cause of death.
“(This) would necessarily constrain me to deliver an open verdict for this case,” said Mr Bay.
Given the chronological sequence of the trips made to the toilet, Mr Bay noted that it was likely that Ms M’s visit there was to address and alleviate the after-effects of childbirth, and not to actually give birth to the child in the toilet.
While the evidence strongly pointed to Ms M being most likely the mother, her absence from Singapore’s jurisdiction had made it impossible to confirm her maternity as the DNA samples collected required a reference sample from her, he said.
It is understood that the three Indonesian women remain as persons of interest.
Source: TODAY Online
