“SINGAPORE (AFP) - – Residents of a public housing block in Singapore ignored the stench coming from a dead man's flat for months because they did not want to disturb him, the Straits Times reported Tuesday.
A coroner's enquiry was told Monday that Tan Cheng Soon, 69, might have been dead for between six and 12 months when his skeletal remains were finally discovered after a neighbour called the police in January, according to the newspaper.
Foo Jong Ming, 30, told the daily that he had not seen Tan since May last year and decided to inform the police when he could no longer take the foul smell from the loner's one-room apartment.
"Nobody wanted to disturb him," said Foo's wife Khanittha.
A spokesman for the Singapore Civil Defence Force told AFP Tuesday that they broke into Tan's locked flat and found a decomposed body, but it was only in October that DNA tests confirmed the identity of the remains.
The coroner recorded an open verdict on Tan's death, which means the exact cause could not be determined.
Most Singaporeans live in densely populated public housing estates like Tan's because of land scarcity, and an increasing number of elderly citizens live on their own due to longer life expectancy.
Tan lived on the 12th floor of a rent-controlled apartment building close to the city centre.”
SOURCE: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20091208/tap-singapore-people-corpse-06f3cb7.html
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