- Joined
- Aug 20, 2022
- Messages
- 23,246
- Points
- 113
S'porean man, 34, finds girlfriend dead in condo, fails to report it, gets jail
The total sentencing also included separate charges for traffic offences.
Xueting Wu
November 17, 2025, 05:52 PM
mothership.sg
A man was sentenced to one week in prison for failing to report the death of his girlfriend and seek medical assistance after finding her unresponsive in her condo.
Instead, he took his belongings and exited, leaving her body to decompose in the flat.
The incident happened on Apr. 23, 2024. The woman's death went unreported until four days later, when her sister went to visit.
The man, Jason Hong Kai Qi, pleaded guilty on Nov. 17 to four charges, which included failing to report a death to the police despite being aware that its cause was unknown.
His other charges had to do with road traffic offences, including the obstruction of justice.
Found unconscious
According to court documents seen by Mothership, the deceased lived alone in Riverfront Residences, a condo in Hougang.
She had two children from a previous marriage, but her ex-husband had custody of both.Investigations revealed that she and Hong, who were both 33 then, were in a relationship at the time of her death.
Hong, who would occasionally stay over at the woman's place, had access to the unit.
On Apr. 23, 2024, before arriving at the unit, Hong first attempted to contact the woman, but could not reach her.
He then drove over to the unit and went in at about 4pm.The unit looked messy, and in the dark bedroom, he found the woman lying motionless on the bed, covered with a blanket up to her neck.
She did not respond when he called out to her.
Tried to revive her
The woman's inhaler was lying next to her. Hong took it and pumped it once into her mouth.
Then, he heard an exhaling sound, and noticed some white residue around her mouth.He next attempted chest resuscitation on her, but she remained unresponsive.
Finally, he used his hands to close her eyes, which were partially open.
Hong then collected some of his personal belongings in the unit and took them to his car.
He went back up to the unit, tucked his access card to the condo in a sealed white envelope and left it on her shoe rack, then left.
According to the prosecutor, Hong had realised that the woman was dead by the time he left her place."The death was one where the manner or cause of which was unknown, and the [accused] knew this," the prosecutor said.
"Nonetheless, without reasonable excuse, he did not call for any medical attention, nor did he ever make any report of the death to a police officer."
The sister's discovery
Around 8pm that same day, Hong sent a few messages to the woman's sister, who did not recognise his number.
His messages said only that the woman was uncontactable.The sister, however, did not think that anything was amiss, as she had just met the deceased that past weekend.
The deceased had also gone uncontactable before in the past.
Four days later on Apr. 27, 2024, the sister, who also had a condo access card, visited the unit with the deceased's two children, and discovered the body.
Hong was subsequently arrested that day.Despite an autopsy, the final cause of death could not be ascertained as the woman's body was in a state of advanced decomposition.
The autopsy findings revealed no obvious natural disease that might cause or contribute to death.
Confused and distraught
In mitigation, Hong's lawyers said that he had been in an "on-and-off relationship" with the woman.
He'd panicked and tried to give her first aid when he found her dead, and was "confused and distraught" when she failed to respond.In response, the prosecution pointed out that Hong had failed to mention his girlfriend's death in his messages to her sister, CNA reported.
He had instead tried to hide the fact that he'd been in the unit by merely saying she was uncontactable.
Hong's defence acknowledged that he regrets that he did not clarify what he saw, but thought his messages were "sufficient" to get her sister's attention.
He had been in "a state of grief", and did not want to pass these same emotions to her sister, but now knows that he should have done more.In sentencing, District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz called it a rare case but noted that Hong had caused "significant and irreversible" harm by failing to report the woman's death.
She further pointed out that his message to her sister had been "plainly misleading".
Traffic offences
The offence of failing to report a person's death is meant to allow the police to conduct investigations without delay.In Hong's case, his actions prevented the deceased's cause of death to be ascertained, the prosecution said.
Hong also faced separate charges relating to a road traffic incident on Jan. 26, 2022.
He had been driving along Upper Serangoon Road before Hougang Avenue 5 that afternoon when he collided into the rear of a taxi in front of him.
At the time, he did not have a valid driving licence, as his licence had been revoked following a prior traffic incident in 2021.When the taxi driver asked for his particulars, Hong gave a false name, and later instructed a friend to take the blame for him.
Hong and his friend ended up giving the police false statements about the accident, with Hong doing so to avoid criminal liability, the prosecutor said.
Sentencing
For obstructing justice in relation to his 2022 traffic incident, Hong was sentenced to three months' jail. The offence of driving without a valid licence got him ten days' jail.
For not reporting his girlfriend's death in 2024, he was sentenced to one week in prison.This last offence is punishable with a fine not exceeding S$1,500, or not more than one month in prison, or both.
For his collective offences, he was sentenced to three months and one week in prison, fined S$1,000, and disqualified from driving for a year.
The sentence was backdated to his arrest on Apr. 27, 2024.
