A 68-year-old woman’s decomposing body was discovered on 29 April at a HDB unit in Ang Mo Kio after neighbours noticed a foul stench coming out of her flat.
The Singapore Police Force confirmed the incident and said that they were alerted to a case of unnatural death on 29 April at about 10.30am at Block 224 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.
The woman was found inside the flat, lying motionless before subsequently being pronounced dead by a paramedic from the Singapore Civil Defence Force.
The police are not suspecting any foul play in her death, according to their preliminary investigations.
A neighbour who lives beside the deceased, 49-year-old Joanna, told Shin Min Daily News that she last saw the deceased on 27 April before her body was discovered and that the woman was sitting in her living room at the time.
The next day, she saw that the woman’s windows and doors were closed, and when she passed by her unit in the afternoon, there was a stench emanating from the flat.
However, she didn’t knock on the door or think too much of it because the smell was not very strong at the time.
Later that evening, she went to the woman’s flat and heard the sound of water running from the kitchen and thought that the woman was showering, and she then left.
On 29 April, another male neighbour passed by the unit and noticed a strong stench from the unit and alerted the authorities after suspecting that something was wrong.
Joanna added that when the police reached the scene, a bunch of flies flew out of the unit and the whole corridor was filled with stench.
The elderly woman was then found inside her flat, lying down motionless on the toilet floor.
The neighbours speculated that the deceased might have fallen in the shower, and they revealed that the elderly woman was an introvert who rarely spoke to other people or left her home other than to buy food back.
But the neighbours still helped to keep a lookout for the woman and had previously invited her to join them in their community activities several times.
The deceased’s relatives also added that they used to bring the elderly woman out for reunion gatherings and celebrations and that they never expected her sudden passing.