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A man was arrested at KK Women's and Children's Hospital for her murder. The man, in his early 40s, was said to be reeking of alcohol then.
Police described him as 'a friend' of the two-month-old infant's mother. The Straits Times learnt from a friend of the couple that they had been planning to marry, and that the man got to know the woman only after she was pregnant.
Since her birth, the baby girl and her mother had been staying at the Good Shepherd Centre in Block 250, Yishun Avenue 9.
The shelter is funded by the Catholic Welfare Services, the charity arm of the Catholic Church. It takes in pregnant women or unwed mothers and provides them counselling and support services.
Employees kept mum yesterday about the baby's death. A resident said that there are more than 20 women and their children staying there.
Male visitors are allowed inside, said a man who was visiting his friend yesterday, but they must remain in the visiting room.
Residents in Block 250 described the mother as bespectacled and usually wearing shorts and a T-shirt. She is a single mother in her 20s.
Housewife Annie Yong, 47, told The Straits Times that at around 7pm on Sunday, her husband saw the man carrying the crying baby at the void deck. He was trying to feed the baby with a milk bottle.
Student Ch'ng Zheng Wei, 10, and his sister saw the man seated at a stone table and covering the baby with a blanket in her pram. They heard a woman walking by ask the man why he did not call for an ambulance. She also warned him that the baby would die if he did not do so.
The woman walked quickly towards the centre with the man pushing the pram close behind.
Sources said the baby's mother worked as a salesgirl and the man had gone to look for her at her workplace in the afternoon and created a commotion there. He then went to the centre to look for the baby.
Residents said the man had been visiting the woman and her child every day since the child was born. He would bring the woman food in the evenings and carry the baby while she ate.
They described the couple as 'loving' and 'on good terms', although they have apparently been quarrelling recently, with the woman left in tears.
Delivery driver Selvam Ramaya, 49, said he often saw the couple sitting with the baby at the staircase. 'They were together even before the baby was born. When she was pregnant, he would always come and see her.'
The baby, who was drenched, was wearing only diapers and covered in a blanket when the centre's employees were alerted.
Her clothes were found in a nearby drain along with several empty mineral water bottles.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ZAKIR HUSSAIN
