SINGAPORE - The family of researcher Sunil Singh Sandhu, 46, who is believed to have died in a fire on a recreational scuba diving vessel in the United States, have done DNA cheek swabs at the US Embassy in Singapore to help with the identification of his body.
Speaking to The Straits Times on Saturday (Sept 7), Mr Sunil's eldest sister Geetajeet Kaur Sandhu, 48, said she and her father did the swabs on Friday afternoon.
The swabs have since been dispatched to the US, and test results could come as early as Sunday, she added.
"They told us that the coroners in the US are working overtime over the weekend for this, so we hope we will be able to get the results on Sunday, which would be Saturday in the US," said Mr Ramesh Singh, 48.
He is married to Ms Geetajeet.
Mr Sunil may be one of two Singaporean victims in the fire that broke out on the vessel off the southern California coast on Monday. His name was listed on the passenger manifest of the boat, the Conception.
The other Singaporean, Ms Tan Wei, a 26-year-old postgraduate student from the University of California, Berkeley, has been identified by local authorities as among the 34 people who perished in the fire.
Mr Sunil, who had been living in the US for 24 years and would return to Singapore two to three times a year, had planned to come home on Nov 22, said Mr Ramesh.
The family was intending to travel to Britain in December to celebrate Christmas with Mr Sunil's second sister. They had also planned to catch a Liverpool match together, as Mr Sunil was a fan of the English football club.
"But now, that's all for nothing," said Mr Ramesh.
The couple, who have two sons aged 15 and 16, said Mr Sunil, who was not married, was "a gem of a person" who always put others first. The former St Andrews' Junior College (SAJC) student would call home daily, added Ms Geetajeet.
"Even though now we live with so much technology like WhatsApp, he always chose the human touch with a phone call. My mum would always prepare a cup of tea, sit on her bed and wait for his call," she said, adding that her parents are distraught over the incident..
"Every time after talking to him, you would always feel happy. He would ask about everyone and how they are doing."
Mr Sunil's achievements had made his 77-year-old father very proud, Mr Ramesh added.
"Sunil was a very humble person. He never bragged about any of his achievements and I never knew that he could speak so many languages until now," he said.
According to a biography written by Mr Sunil's close friends in the US after the incident, he spoke French, Japanese, Russian, Mandarin, Malay and English.
Mr Sunil was granted two patents based on his research, and had 17 published research articles in areas such as photonics, nanotechnology and solar energy.
After he graduated from SAJC, he studied at the Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee, and completed his master's degree and postgraduate doctoral degree at Stanford University, where he also worked as a postdoctoral research scientist.
He had also worked at various start-ups in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, before he became a senior scientist in silicon photonics at start-up PointCloud Inc.
"An engineer with wide-ranging experience in large-scale computation, supercomputers, operations, testing and software development, Sunil embodied the highly skilled set of a committed practical scientist," read the brief biography, which has been circulating on WhatsApp among family and friends.
"While the age of renaissance men may be long gone, Sunil was a recent living embodiment of that spirit," it added.
Ms Geetajeet said the family hopes Mr Sunil can be identified as soon as possible.
"Unfortunately, God always knows who are the best ones and he needs angels up there. Now Sunil is our guardian angel," she added.
