Human skeleton found under Kallang Bahru bridge remains unidentified despite investigations: Coroner

SINGAPORE: More than a year after a human skeleton was found under a bridge at Kallang Bahru, the identity of the deceased remains unknown, despite extensive investigations and cross-referencing with 18 unsolved missing persons cases.

In a set of findings made available on Wednesday (Jan 12), State Coroner Adam Nakhoda declared an open verdict into the case. 

The identity of the deceased and the cause of death remain unknown. Evidence uncovered in the inquiry suggests that the deceased was an adult man in his 30s to 60s who died at least six months to a year before his bones were discovered on Nov 9, 2020.

In early November 2020, workers were erecting scaffolding under the bridge at 1 Kallang Place as part of a contract awarded by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

At about noon on Nov 9, 2020, a worker erecting the scaffolding under the bridge saw a skull in a space underneath the structure. He immediately called for help, with LTA and the police alerted shortly after.

Police officers on the scene checked the underside of the bridge and found skeletonised remains scattered around the top of a support beam. They also found a shirt, underwear, three clumps of hair and some hair strands in the vicinity of the skeleton.

A suitcase, a brown bag and a black and white striped bag were found at the river bank near the entry point to the walkway that the workers were constructing.

Inside the suitcase was a pair of jeans, a set of underwear, a belt and a single sock. Faded receipts were found in the black and white bag, but no useful information was gleaned from them.

Pieces of paper with telephone numbers were found in the bags, but when the police called those numbers, the people who answered could not give any information relevant to the investigations.

The clothes found in the bags yielded DNA that did not match the deceased's DNA. Investigations revealed that they belonged to a homeless man who would sleep under the bridge.

The police in their preliminary investigations did not find evidence of blunt force injuries suggesting foul play or that the deceased was a victim of any crime prior to his death.

THE AUTOPSY

An autopsy was conducted on the deceased a day after the remains were found. There were no remnant organs, flesh or hair, with the remains "totally skeletonised", the forensic pathologist found.

The bones were "totally disarticulated from each other" and showed brown discolouration, with a few small maggots within the skull.

The forensic pathologist found that death likely occurred at least six months to a year before the autopsy, and that the bones belonged to an adult man in his 30s to 60s.

He was "likely of Mongoloid racial descent", the pathologist added, using an anthropological term relating to a group of people having Asian ancestry and classified according to physical traits.

A forensic odontologist examined the skull and found that the strong muscle attachments at the mandible and other surfaces suggested it belonged to a man. The wear to the teeth resulting from toothbrushing suggested that he was likely to be right-handed.

DNA samples taken from the man did not match any found in the authorities' database.

In the course of investigations, a man identified in court documents only as Mr LBP came forward as he suspected the bones belonged to his brother. His brother had been reported missing on Aug 19, 1986.

The bridge was one of the places Mr LBP used to go to with his brother, and it was within walking distance of their old home. However, Mr LBP's DNA sample did not match those of the deceased.

THE UNSOLVED MISSING PERSONS REPORTS

The police went through 18 unsolved missing persons reports from June 2019 to June 2020 involving men aged between 30 and 60. Most of these were eliminated, with four that could fit the bill.

The first, Mr LKS, was reported missing on Aug 26, 2019. He would have been 56 in November 2020 and was last seen by his family in 1997. He signed divorce papers through a proxy lawyer in 2000, and his son filed a missing persons report in 2019, saying it was because Mr LKS had not paid alimony since 2000.

The police assessed that the chances of a DNA match between Mr LKS' son and the deceased would be very low, and it was the police's view that it was very unlikely the deceased was Mr LKS as he had been missing for a long time before November 2020.

The second, Mr NHS, was reported missing on Jul 5, 2010. He was last seen by his family on Jul 1, 2009, when he told his family that he was going to Thailand for two weeks.

He did not return to Singapore and his family filed a missing persons report on Jul 5, 2010. He would have been 41 as of November 2020.

However, the police found it was unlikely that the deceased was Mr NHS, as his sister recalled he had crooked teeth, unlike those of the remains and was told he was still staying in Thailand.

The third possibility, China national Mr NY, was reported missing on Mar 20, 2020 and would have been 27 as of November 2020. He failed to report for work on Mar 9, 2020 and his employer filed a missing persons report weeks later.

Checks showed that he had not travelled out of Singapore, but there was a positive match on Jan 29, 2021 between Mr NY's features and a CCTV face search, ruling him out.

The last possibility, Mr CYW, was reported missing on Mar 4, 2020, two days after he was last seen. He would have been 40 years old as of November 2020.

However, there was a match between Mr CYW's features and a CCTV face search on Jan 31, 2021. He remains "at large", the coroner said. The CCTV face search footage was shown to Mr CYW's father, but he could not conclusively state that it was his son.

A blood and DNA sample by Mr CYW's father failed to match those of the deceased.

In recording his open verdict, the State Coroner said there was no evidence to suggest that foul play was involved in the deceased's death.