Couple found dead in Punggol HDB flat; police investigating

SINGAPORE – A husband and wife were found dead in a Punggol Housing Board flat early in the morning on Feb 27.

In response to queries, police said they were alerted to the incident at Block 408B Northshore Drive at about 6.25am.

When officers arrived, they found a man and a woman lying motionless in a residential unit, the police said. The pair were later declared dead by a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) paramedic.

There was blood on the floor of the flat as well.

The man was 71 and the woman was 66, the police said.

Police have classified the case as one involving unnatural death.

When The Straits Times arrived at 12.25pm, there were at least four police investigators outside the unit. They were wearing shoe covers and standing in an area cordoned off by the police.

At about 12.40pm, two more plainclothes investigators arrived at the unit, carrying cameras, brown paper bags and a toolkit.

The couple’s godson, who declined to be named, arrived at the unit at about 2.10pm.

Police officers were seen talking to him and comforting him.

Choking back tears, he said: “I only found out what happened when I saw it on the news. I saw the block number and the floor and thought – it’s not possible that it’s about them, but it is.”

He added that he last saw them before Chinese New Year.

“We would often meet for meals. They would even wait for me to finish work before having dinner together. I don’t know how this happened,” he said.

Mr Mike Liew, who lives three doors away from the couple, said he found out what happened only when he saw police officers along the corridor.

The retired executive, 73, said: “It’s a shock to me. I have lived here for five years and there’s never been any commotion. I didn’t even hear anything out of the ordinary this morning either.”

Describing the couple as friendly, he said: “They moved in around the same time that I did. I would always see them at the lift lobby or even at the nearby mall. They would always smile and say hello to me.

“The husband retired a while ago and loves to keep potted plants outside his home, but I remember he cleared them away recently. I know his wife used to work part-time at Covid-related jobs. I’m not sure if she eventually retired.”

Mr Liew also said the woman who died was generous, and gave his foreign domestic worker a $20 hongbao for Chinese New Year.

He said: “Their home was always the one with the most elaborate Chinese New Year decorations. I know they looked forward to this time of the year.”

The exterior of the dead couple’s flat was still festooned with streamers, banners and pineapple-themed decorations for Chinese New Year, which fell on Feb 17.

Another neighbour, logistics worker Muhd Shariyan, 33, said his wife heard shouts coming from the unit around 5am on Feb 27.

“It was a woman shouting. But we couldn’t hear what she was saying. We only realised something happened when we saw SCDF officers outside the couple’s home this morning,” he said.

Mr Shariyan added that he and his wife had not seen the couple in the past two months.

“Before that, we usually saw them quite often. They have even been to our home before. But recently, the auntie told me her husband fell sick and was very weak.

“I’m very shocked and very sad about what happened. We were quite close to them,” he said.

At about 3.45pm, a group of six people arrived at the flat. Two of them told the police that they were the dead couple’s children.

They spoke to the police for about 20 minutes before leaving, but declined to speak to reporters.

Around 5.40pm, an investigation officer left the unit holding a large evidence bag estimated to be 1.3m long.

More investigators left the flat holding bags of evidence 10 minutes later. One bag was labelled “biohazard waste”.

Around 7.20pm, both bodies were removed from the unit.