Coroner’s inquiry opens into missing elderly man found dead 4 days later in SingPost Centre stairwell

SINGAPORE – A 78-year-old man left his Haig Road home for a wake on the night of Aug 27, 2021, and it was the last time his family saw him.

When his daughter called him on the phone the next morning, Mr Soh Eng Thong told her he was at SingPost Centre, a mall in Paya Lebar, and said in Hokkien that “the door cannot open”.

Over the next four days, his family, police officers and security guards at the mall searched for him there and its surrounding areas. They distributed fliers to members of the public to help find him.

The search ended when his body was found on Aug 31, 2021,

in a stairwell at SingPost Centre

.

On March 28, 2025, a coroner’s inquiry opened into Mr Soh’s death.

The cause of death was hypertensive heart disease and the police said they do not suspect foul play.

The inquiry began with State Coroner Adam Nakhoda giving his condolences to Mr Soh’s family members, who were in court.

He said a coroner’s inquiry is generally not called when an individual dies from natural causes. But he noted there were some concerns raised on the circumstances leading to Mr Soh’s death and that investigations were focused on trying to address them.

The first witness called to the stand was police investigation officer (IO) Shannon Ng, who noted that Mr Soh had a history of hypertension and high blood pressure.

IO Ng said Mr Soh left his home at 8pm on Aug 27, 2021, with CCTV cameras showing he arrived at SingPost Centre 30 minutes later.

He entered the mall via its main entrance before heading to a loading bay. There, footage captured him walking in circles for around 20 minutes before he was guided by a security guard back to the retail section of the mall.

After he left the mall at around 9.05pm, his whereabouts could not be accounted for over the next two hours, testified IO Ng.

More than two hours later at 11.20pm, Mr Soh was seen on CCTV footage returning to SingPost Centre.

He walked to the loading bay and took a lift back to the mall’s retail section. He was last seen entering the stairwell at around midnight.

A cleaner found his body on Aug 31, 2021, after noticing a foul smell coming from the stairwell.

The court heard that, for reasons unknown, no one searched that particular stairwell where Mr Soh’s body was found.

The stairwell serves four levels: B1, B2, B3 and Level 1. IO Ng said one-way locking mechanisms were fitted into the stairwell doors at the three basement levels.

She said: “If someone entered the stairwell, they can exit only at Level 1, which leads out of the building.”

She added that it was the Singapore Civil Defence Force’s (SCDF) view that the stairwell’s one-way locking mechanism was a breach of the fire code as it could hamper firefighting efforts.

When asked why the doors could be opened only one-way, the second witness, Mr Rohaizad Ishak, a former security officer at SingPost Centre, said: “Based on what I can recall, it was designed in a manner so that people could exit (the mall) and not re-enter it for fire safety (reasons).”

SCDF investigator Ong Kok Ping, who was also called to the stand, testified that one-way locking mechanisms are not allowed for the doors of stairwells located next to fire lift lobbies.

This includes the stairwell Mr Soh was found in, as it is situated beside a fire lift lobby, he added.

Mr Ong, a senior officer, said: “It was the architect of the building... who should have detected this breach.”

However, the architect, Mr Foo Chai Yee, said the term “one-way lock” was not stated in any document or architectural drawing signed off by him.

Mr Foo testified that he discovered that the doors at the stairwell had one-way locks during an SCDF audit only after Mr Soh’s death.

Project manager Ngor Soo Sim, who was also called to the stand, said he received instructions to change the lock system of the stairwell doors from two-way to one-way, and that the building had passed an SCDF inspection.

The timeline on when the locking mechanism was changed was not mentioned in court.

The coroner adjourned the hearing and said he will give his findings at a later date.