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The foul smell coming from a unit in Bedok Reservoir was too strong to bear and someone called the police.
An elderly man who lived there had not been seen for some time.
When the police arrived at around 8.30pm on Monday, they tried to get to the source of the stench after forcing open the steel gate of the four-room flat and breaking the lock of the wooden door.
But the 12th-storey unit in Block 132, Bedok Reservoir Road, was so crammed with junk that they could barely open the door.
Fifty minutes later, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was called in to help get into the flat.
The police and SCDF had to remove the door entirely and clear the junk near the entrance before forcing their way into the unit, reported Shin Min Daily News.
It took them four hours to gain entry to the flat.
Around midnight, they found the man, believed to be in his 70s, lying motionless amid the junk.
His body was buried under bulging plastic bags, newspapers and heavy cardboard boxes stacked up 2m high.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
When The New Paper visited the unit on Tuesday afternoon, a strong stench still lingered outside the unit.
At least 20 potted plants, three cardboard boxes and other discarded objects like shoes and clothes lined the corridor and blocked the entrance.
More junk was spilling out from the unit.
The interior was completely obscured by towering piles of clutter, save for the area around the entrance which had been cleared by the officers the night before.
Ms Jinky Delrosario, a tourist from the Philippines, 29, who has been staying near his unit down the corridor for the past two weeks while visiting her friend, said the last time she saw the elderly man was about a week ago.
"He was a weird man who never spoke to me. I saw him locking the door that morning when I was heading out to run some errands, but the strange thing was that it took a whole hour for him to do so.
"I came back and he was still at it. He might have been having trouble with all the clutter in his flat," she said.
She said that he often picked up discarded items from the area near the block and took them home, which could be why the flat often emitted a stench even before he died.
A resident from the opposite block, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lim, said the man used to be quite friendly until about a year ago.
She said: "He lived with a woman who helped out at a bakery nearby and would greet me when I bumped into them."
She believes the woman was his wife. But she had not seen her with him for about a year.
"He became more reclusive afterwards. The last time I saw him two months ago, he was sitting alone at the void deck, counting coins," said the retiree in her 70s.
The police have classified this case as an unnatural death. Investigations are ongoing.
An elderly man who lived there had not been seen for some time.
When the police arrived at around 8.30pm on Monday, they tried to get to the source of the stench after forcing open the steel gate of the four-room flat and breaking the lock of the wooden door.
But the 12th-storey unit in Block 132, Bedok Reservoir Road, was so crammed with junk that they could barely open the door.
Fifty minutes later, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was called in to help get into the flat.
The police and SCDF had to remove the door entirely and clear the junk near the entrance before forcing their way into the unit, reported Shin Min Daily News.
It took them four hours to gain entry to the flat.
Around midnight, they found the man, believed to be in his 70s, lying motionless amid the junk.
His body was buried under bulging plastic bags, newspapers and heavy cardboard boxes stacked up 2m high.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
When The New Paper visited the unit on Tuesday afternoon, a strong stench still lingered outside the unit.
At least 20 potted plants, three cardboard boxes and other discarded objects like shoes and clothes lined the corridor and blocked the entrance.
More junk was spilling out from the unit.
The interior was completely obscured by towering piles of clutter, save for the area around the entrance which had been cleared by the officers the night before.
Ms Jinky Delrosario, a tourist from the Philippines, 29, who has been staying near his unit down the corridor for the past two weeks while visiting her friend, said the last time she saw the elderly man was about a week ago.
"He was a weird man who never spoke to me. I saw him locking the door that morning when I was heading out to run some errands, but the strange thing was that it took a whole hour for him to do so.
"I came back and he was still at it. He might have been having trouble with all the clutter in his flat," she said.
She said that he often picked up discarded items from the area near the block and took them home, which could be why the flat often emitted a stench even before he died.
A resident from the opposite block, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lim, said the man used to be quite friendly until about a year ago.
She said: "He lived with a woman who helped out at a bakery nearby and would greet me when I bumped into them."
She believes the woman was his wife. But she had not seen her with him for about a year.
"He became more reclusive afterwards. The last time I saw him two months ago, he was sitting alone at the void deck, counting coins," said the retiree in her 70s.
The police have classified this case as an unnatural death. Investigations are ongoing.
