HE was their only child, born to them through in-vitro fertilisation.

The parents of Second Lieutenant Nicholas Chan Wei Kit, 21, are still unable to believe their son is gone after his sudden death on Friday afternoon at Seletar Camp, in which an army land rover rolled back, pinning him underneath.

A recovery vehicle was dispatched, although the Defence Ministry did not say how soon after the accident, to lift the vehicle off him. But 2LT Chan died in hospital of his injuries - a little more than an hour after he took over the vehicle.

His mother, a housewife, received a call at their flat in Bukit Batok, telling her that 'something had happened' to her son, and that he was in hospital. Together with her husband, an engineer, they rushed down. But by the time they got there, it was too late.

The family are still questioning what lead to their son's death. After all, he had been on military trips to Brunei and Taiwan, and had always returned safe.

2LT Chan's mother, said that she is still too distraught to probe much into the details of her son's death.

But one thing they want to know is whether any other military personnel were with their son at the time of the incident. The family said Mindef has told them that they cannot reveal this now as the matter is still under investigation.

What little they know is that 2LT Chan - a newly-commissioned officer- was a Motor Transport Officer based in Jurong Camp. He had gone to the Seletar camp that day to collect the vehicle.

It is also not known if he was alone at the time but his mother said he could not have gone to collect the vehicle alone because he did not have a driving licence.

In between sobs, she said that her son would come back almost every night to the family home to have dinner before heading back to camp. She had been expecting him as usual on Friday evening - but he never came.

Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.