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The New Paper
Saturday, Nov 03, 2012
SINGAPORE - The last time anyone saw him alive, he was clad in a sarong and washing his clothes on a boat.
When his colleague, who was on another vessel nearby, checked on him later, he was nowhere to be seen.
All the colleague could find were his clothes lying in the boat's cabin.
The mystery of the missing man was solved when his highly decomposed naked body surfaced two days later.
On April 24, Myanmar national Maung Zaw Myo Win, 32, was on a boat berthed at Marina South Pier. He was working as a non-certified crew member staying on board one of the five boats he was tasked to look after.
The boats, measuring 6m to 7.6m in length each and berthed at the pier for Everlast Marine Services, were used to ferry workers from the company to nearby ships.
All five boats were tied together.
His colleague, Mr Junrey Millan Hipe, a Filipino, was the last to see Mr Maung alive.
A coroner's inquiry into Mr Maung's death on Tuesday, heard that MrJunrey was doing some maintenance work onboard the fifth boat, at the extreme end of the berth from Mr Maung's boat.
He didn't realise that anything had happened until someone from a passing boat shouted at him, telling him to go to the other end of the boat.
Noticing that Mr Maung was missing, MrJunrey checked all five boats, but could not find his co-worker.
He saw a pail and some washed clothes at the stern or rear of the boat that Mr Maung had been on. He also found a shirt, the sarong that he had seen Mr Maung wearing earlier, and MrMaung's walkie-talkie in the cabin.
The investigating officer, Mr Helmi Mohd Ali, of the Police Coast Guard, told the court that witnesses had seen Mr Maung showering naked on several occasions previously.
Mr Helmi said Mr Maung's company had ascertained that the deceased had a swimming certification. According to the investigation report submitted to the Coroner's Court, there was no visible injury on Mr Maung's body.
The police identified him from one of his fingerprints.
His body was later identified by his manager, Mr Win Zaw Linn.
The autopsy indicated that there had been no signs of a struggle or assault on Mr Maung. Based on the police report, no foul play was suspected in the death of MrMaung.
State Coroner Imran Abdul Hamid concluded that Mr Maung had fallen from the boat when he was bathing and washing his clothes naked on the open stern of the boat.
He also said the waters appeared to have suddenly turned choppy due to a passing vessel and that the deceased had experienced difficulties in the water and drowned.
