FOR almost a week, a man lay dead, face up on the floor in front of the toilet in his home, while his mother and brother went about business as usual.
The decomposing body of Mr Saifudin Abdul Motalib, 29, who worked as a restaurant dishwasher, was discovered only after one of his school friends, Mr Yazzid Bahari, visited his three-room flat in Silat Walk.
Mr Saifudin was found clad in his underwear, on 1 Feb. He is believed to have died on 26 Jan.
The police have classified the case as unnatural death and confirmed that his mother and brother are helping with investigations.
The cause of death has yet to be determined.
When The New Paper on Sunday attended the funeral yesterday at Choa Chu Kang Muslim Cemetery, the mother, who gave her name as Siti, 48, seemed completely detached from the proceedings.
Wearing a bright floral print blouse, the housewife smiled and said she was fine when approached by this reporter.
'I'm not sad. Death is natural. He's gone back to his source,' she said in Malay.
To a passerby who asked who had died, she replied: 'A relative.'
She stood more 30m away from where her son's body was lowered into the ground.
Although repeatedly asked to come closer for one last look at him, she firmly declined.
Mr Yazzid, 28, a systems engineer, told us that the family had become withdrawn after Madam Siti's husband died suddenly about six years ago.
He said: 'Saifudin was close to his father - they worked together as cleaners. He was at his father's hospital deathbed.
'It was a big shock for the family - they didn't know what he (the father) died of.'
The dead man's younger brother, Hamzah, would walk around in a business jacket and pretend to be going to work although he was jobless, added Mr Yazzid.
He and the deceased, whom he called 'Din', were quite close last year.
'Din liked to keep things to himself but he opened up to me about his problems with his family.
'I wanted to help him but I didn't know where to start, so I just brought him food about once a week,' said Mr Yazzid.
SOMETHING AMISS
He was visiting the flat last Wednesday with some packed food when he found something amiss.
He said: 'After I passed the food to Saifudin's mother through the gate, I asked her where he was.
'With a smile she said he's dead.'
Mr Yazzid found it hard to believe so he asked staff members at Al-Amin Mosque to look into the matter.
Mr Saifudin had volunteered with their outreach group last year.
Mosque manager Haji Mohd Johan Janif and members of the mosque staff were present when police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force officers came to the flat the next day.
Mr Mohd Johan said: 'The brother was hostile and refused to let people in for two hours. It was only after the SCDF personnel arrived to force the metal gate open that he gave in.
'When I went into the dark and stuffy flat, I felt I was Brad Pitt in the movie Seven.'
Windows were covered with cloth, cutting off light and the stench was unbearable.
He added: 'We could see the corpse from the living room. We had expected him to be on a bed but he was on the floor.
'Even before the mother switched on the lights, it was obvious that the body was rotting because the skin had turned black in some parts.'
Mr Saifudin's eyes were closed and there was no sign of blood or foam, added Mr Mohd Johan.
Our team visited the flat yesterday with Mr Yazzid.
Almost everything in the unkempt flat was covered with a layer of dust and grime, except a red-and-white music player.
In it was a CD entitled, 'Sudden Death'.
Mr Yazzid said: 'I feel terrible. The last time I saw him two months ago, he was okay. Then I got busy with work so I didn't visit. I would get home late and be too tired, so I told myself, 'I'll go tomorrow'.
'Now I've no more chance.'
Source
MAN LIES DEAD IN HOUSE FOR A WEEK 
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