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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Oct 1, 2008
BUKIT BATOK DOUBLE DEATHS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Pair found dead near HDB block
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Can of glue found where teen, brother's friend apparently fell from </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Sujin Thomas
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Family members of Mernel Koh and Mr Eddy Afendi gather to identify their bodies at the spot where they were found. -- ST PHOTO: TERENCE TAN
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A CAN of industrial glue in a plastic bag was left on a stool found at a staircase landing in a Bukit Batok block. Near it were two pairs of slippers.
Nine storeys down, the broken bodies of a 15-year-old girl and a man, aged 22, lay on the ground near Block 127 in Bukit Batok West Avenue 6.
They were found lying side by side, both clad in T-shirts and shorts.
Police are investigating the double deaths. Among the evidence they took away with them was the can of glue, the slippers and the wooden stool which were found on the staircase landing between the 9th and 10th storeys of the block.
The dead teenager, Mernel Koh, was a Secondary 2 student at Fairfield Methodist Secondary School.
The Chinese Indonesian man found beside her, Mr Eddy Afendi, was her older brother's friend. Mernel lived a few blocks away while Mr Eddy was said to live in Bukit Panjang.
At the crime scene yesterday afternoon, shell-shocked relatives and friends were there to identify the bodies.
Mernel's mother was seen weeping uncontrollably at the void deck and had to be propped up by relatives.
A woman, who looked to be in her 30s, identified Mr Eddy's body and was crying in the arms of a man who was with her.
Mernel's 19-year-old boyfriend, who wanted to be known only as Fairuz, said he had spoken to her on Monday night and did not sense anything amiss.
Fairuz said Mernel regarded Mr Eddy as her 'godfather' and would often spend time with him on weekends. He said he did not know if she was a glue- sniffer and sounded surprised when told a can of glue had been found near where the two had apparently fallen from.
A resident, Mr Rosman Ahmad-Dini, 39, said he came out of his house to check what was happening when he heard ambulance sirens just past noon yesterday.
He went down the flight of stairs and saw the chair, slippers and plastic bag. When the police arrived, he led them to the spot. 'The policeman pulled out a can of glue from the bag,' he said.
Dying from glue sniffing is rare, according to the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB). However, there have been a few cases in the Coroner's Court over the past two years where people who had fallen from height had apparently sniffed glue before they died.
Cases of inhalant abuse among youth here are on the rise. The CNB said 352 glue-sniffers were caught in the first half of this year, and 644 nabbed last year. In 2006, it was 403. Glue-sniffers can die of suffocation from even their first whiff. Inhalant abuse damages the brain, muscles, nerves and organs and causes hallucinations, anxiety and restlessness.
Yesterday evening, Fairfield principal Victor Owyong said the school was saddened by the death of a 'friendly, sociable and outgoing' student.
Her former classmate Melody Soh, 15, who was at the Bukit Batok block yesterday, told The Straits Times: 'I don't know why this happened. Eddy treated her like his own daughter.'
[email protected]
<HR width="50%" SIZE=1>
Helplines
Who to call:
Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association: 1800-733-4444
National Family Service Centre: 1800-838-0100
Community Addictions Management Programme: 6732-6837
Samaritans of Singapore: 1800-221-4444
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Oct 1, 2008
BUKIT BATOK DOUBLE DEATHS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Pair found dead near HDB block
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Can of glue found where teen, brother's friend apparently fell from </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Sujin Thomas
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Family members of Mernel Koh and Mr Eddy Afendi gather to identify their bodies at the spot where they were found. -- ST PHOTO: TERENCE TAN
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A CAN of industrial glue in a plastic bag was left on a stool found at a staircase landing in a Bukit Batok block. Near it were two pairs of slippers.
Nine storeys down, the broken bodies of a 15-year-old girl and a man, aged 22, lay on the ground near Block 127 in Bukit Batok West Avenue 6.
They were found lying side by side, both clad in T-shirts and shorts.
Police are investigating the double deaths. Among the evidence they took away with them was the can of glue, the slippers and the wooden stool which were found on the staircase landing between the 9th and 10th storeys of the block.
The dead teenager, Mernel Koh, was a Secondary 2 student at Fairfield Methodist Secondary School.
The Chinese Indonesian man found beside her, Mr Eddy Afendi, was her older brother's friend. Mernel lived a few blocks away while Mr Eddy was said to live in Bukit Panjang.
At the crime scene yesterday afternoon, shell-shocked relatives and friends were there to identify the bodies.
Mernel's mother was seen weeping uncontrollably at the void deck and had to be propped up by relatives.
A woman, who looked to be in her 30s, identified Mr Eddy's body and was crying in the arms of a man who was with her.
Mernel's 19-year-old boyfriend, who wanted to be known only as Fairuz, said he had spoken to her on Monday night and did not sense anything amiss.
Fairuz said Mernel regarded Mr Eddy as her 'godfather' and would often spend time with him on weekends. He said he did not know if she was a glue- sniffer and sounded surprised when told a can of glue had been found near where the two had apparently fallen from.
A resident, Mr Rosman Ahmad-Dini, 39, said he came out of his house to check what was happening when he heard ambulance sirens just past noon yesterday.
He went down the flight of stairs and saw the chair, slippers and plastic bag. When the police arrived, he led them to the spot. 'The policeman pulled out a can of glue from the bag,' he said.
Dying from glue sniffing is rare, according to the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB). However, there have been a few cases in the Coroner's Court over the past two years where people who had fallen from height had apparently sniffed glue before they died.
Cases of inhalant abuse among youth here are on the rise. The CNB said 352 glue-sniffers were caught in the first half of this year, and 644 nabbed last year. In 2006, it was 403. Glue-sniffers can die of suffocation from even their first whiff. Inhalant abuse damages the brain, muscles, nerves and organs and causes hallucinations, anxiety and restlessness.
Yesterday evening, Fairfield principal Victor Owyong said the school was saddened by the death of a 'friendly, sociable and outgoing' student.
Her former classmate Melody Soh, 15, who was at the Bukit Batok block yesterday, told The Straits Times: 'I don't know why this happened. Eddy treated her like his own daughter.'
[email protected]
<HR width="50%" SIZE=1>
Helplines
Who to call:
Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association: 1800-733-4444
National Family Service Centre: 1800-838-0100
Community Addictions Management Programme: 6732-6837
Samaritans of Singapore: 1800-221-4444
