i juz wanna share with all of you, this story has made me very upset. i hv kids the same age as hers.. and ... i dont know! juz speechless.. no words can describe how i feel the moment i got to know abt this. my heart went out to this lady.. and her kids. they've been in my prayers ever since.
Full Version: Why, Mum?
| QUOTE |
| SINGAPORE : A mother and her two young daughters, aged one and two years old, were found dead at the bottom of a block of flats at Chin Swee Road on Wednesday. While the police have classified the case as unnatural death, it is believed that the woman - whose wrists were tied to the two girls - had jumped to her death with her children. The peace and quiet of this neighbourhood was shattered just before noon. Witnesses said they heard a loud thud at about 11.30am. A man working nearby rushed out of his office and saw a woman and two young girls lying at the foot of Block 53. He said the three were all well clothed, complete with footwear. The woman and the baby girl died instantly. But the older child was still breathing, but for only a few minutes, before she too died. ASP Siow Cheng Cheng, a police spokesperson, said: "The two toddlers were tied to the female's hands - using red string, one on the left and one on the right side. The female deceased is believed to be Chinese in her late 20s to early 30s. And the two toddlers are believed to be one to two years old." According to a witness, the woman had slung a small handwritten note in a plastic folder around her neck. Police found a small table on the 25th floor corridor near the parapet. Those who lived in the block speculated that the three did not live in the block as they did not know any mother with two young girls. No other documents were found on the bodies. Police later confirmed that the woman was a Chinese Singaporean. She was 34 years old and the mother of the two young girls. They did not live in the area and she was unemployed. - CNA |
| QUOTE |
| SINGAPORE : The woman who jumped to her death with her two toddlers at Chin Swee Road has been identified as Yap Cheng Chui. The 34-year-old Singaporean had lived in Thailand with her French husband and daughters. She had called her husband there just before she died on Wednesday morning. It was a traumatic morning for her husband, 26-year-old Nicholas Prud'hon, who had to identify the bodies of his wife and two daughters at the mortuary. The Prud'hons, who were teachers in Thailand, had been married for four years. Yap's mother told reporters Nicholas had received a phone call from Yap on Wednesday morning just before she died. According to Yap's mother, Yap had told Nicholas that she had cancer and did not want to go for surgery, nor did she want to burden her family. In fact, Yap's parents were also in Thailand as she had flown them there on a visit. After the phone call, they flew to Singapore but arrived too late. Police said Yap had checked into a hotel in nearby Chinatown a few days ago with her two daughters, Kathleen, who was almost three years old, and Calista, who was 16 months old. Yap Cheng Chui did not leave any other clue as to why she ended her and her daughters' lives at Chin Swee Road. In fact, they were just back in Singapore over the Chinese New Year and her mother said she looked happy back then. The bodies of the three were cremated at Mount Vernon on Thursday. - CNA |
i will post more update, if anyone is interested to read more on them.
~neha
| QUOTE |
| According to a witness, the woman had slung a small handwritten note in a plastic folder around her neck. |
Any idea what the note said? why she did it? Its one thing to commit suicide, but to take your kids with you?
here's another update.. i think its mentioned somewhre here, about the notes she had with her..
| QUOTE |
| NO one can imagine the state of Madam Yap Cheng Chui's mind as she headed for Block 53, Chin Swee Road, with her two young daughters. But she was broken-hearted by news of her womb cancer. Only 34, she had two healthy adorable daughters and a loving 26-year-old husband of Thai-Vietnamese descent, earning a good living teaching French to gifted children in Thailand. Fear gnawed at Madam Yap. Deep. Troubling. Painful. Fear, as she told her mother, of going for surgery. Fear, that she will not see daughters Calista, 2, and Kathleen, 3, ever again What pain must have filled her as she took the lift to the 25th storey. It must have driven all sense from her as she pushed a small table to the parapet. She would later use it as a stool to help her jump off that fateful Wednesday morning. No one knows if her two young daughters knew what was going on as their mother, wracked with emotions, wound red strings around her wrists and the girls', tying them with a firm knot. RED STRING: WHAT IT MEANS The tiny wrists tied up in red string is a picture one does not forget easily. It was a pitiful attempt to remain close to her daughters. According to several Taoists we spoke to, what she may have intended when she secured herself to her children with red string is even more heart-wrenching. It symbolises the woman's desire for them to be reborn as her children again in her next life. Yet others said the red string would ensure that their three souls would be together in the after-life. The note police found seemed to bear this out. The note in English, was addressed to her daughters and found near their bodies at the foot of the block. It read, 'Although both of you are very mischievous, and it's unbearable, but I still want to bring both of you along...', reported Shin Min Daily News. There were other items found. A poignant picture of lives lost. Along the corridor of the 25th storey lay a black bag. Inside the bag were two of the girls' toy handphones, a few sweets, some tissue paper and about $6 cash. Their clothes also indicated that Madam Yap had planned their final journey to be as dignified as possible. Madam Yap was wearing a grey floral cheongsam and black court shoes. Kathleen was dressed in navy blue suspenders with floral prints while little Calista was in a light blue long dress. Both girls were wearing long white socks. Reports said the girls were born in France and were French citizens, like their father. Said Madam Yap's sobbing mother: 'Ah Mei loved her two girls very much. She was distressed and wanted to go, but couldn't bear to leave her daughters behind. 'I think that's why she took them along.' That was five days after she returned from Thailand, where she lived with her husband. The cancer that ravaged her womb tortured her mind and broke her heart. She had so much to lose if she died. Half an hour before she jumped, she called her husband. Her message: I don't want to undergo surgery for my cancer. I am sorry. That was the last time Mr Nicholas Oliver Prud'hon's spoke to her. She did not answer his frantic calls after that. Her sobbing mother said to Lianhe Wanbao: 'She told her husband that she has been depressed after her cancer was diagnosed. 'She said she doesn't want to be a burden. 'Neither does she want an operation.... 'Then she apologised to her husband. 'That roused his suspicions.' Madam Yap had been staying at a room in Hotel 81 in Chinatown, and apparently picked Block 53 in Chin Swee Road because it was the tallest building around. Madam Yap's puzzled parents will never know why their daughter arranged for them to fly to Thailand for a visit, only for her to return to Singapore at the same time. But they do know she found out about the womb cancer in Thailand, just before she came back. Madam Yap never wanted others to worry about her, and often kept troubles to herself, said her mother. She added of her only daughter: 'Ah Mei is a clever and obedient girl, why end her life in such a tragic way. How can we as parents accept it?' Madam Yap had once said that she wanted to be cremated in Singapore after her death. Their ashes will subsequently be scattered at sea. Together in death, even as in life. |
trying to paste some pictures..
I'm very sorry but I can't feel bad for the mother, maby I'm synical but I think she did very wrongly for taking her two small children with her 
Very selfish of her, did she even stop to think how her husband would feel when she decided to kill herself with those two poor babies?
Not to mention both of the girls were just in the beginning of their lives
Makes me sad and sick to my stomack
May those two little girls rest in peace and I wish strenght to her remaining family who have to live with this tragedy, especially her own parents and husband
Very selfish of her, did she even stop to think how her husband would feel when she decided to kill herself with those two poor babies?
Not to mention both of the girls were just in the beginning of their lives
Makes me sad and sick to my stomack
May those two little girls rest in peace and I wish strenght to her remaining family who have to live with this tragedy, especially her own parents and husband
Pia, I'm pretty much with you there. Although one never really knows the grips of depression that takes over.
I'm still sitting here, just staring at that one lifeless child's hand. And crying. That part is so hard to get around. May God have mercy.
I'm still sitting here, just staring at that one lifeless child's hand. And crying. That part is so hard to get around.
May God have mercy.
here's another pic, of the woman, and another girl's hand...
| QUOTE |
| Their final days Didn't tell family whereabouts Checked into a hotel Mum took girls shopping By Tanya Fong and K.C. Vijayan WHEN Madam Yap Cheng Chui, 34, checked into a hotel last Friday, she probably had suicide on her mind. Her actions from the time she arrived here from Thailand seemed to suggest that. For instance, she checked into a hotel, instead of going to her parents' home in Pasir Ris, as she usually did when in town. She also gave the Hotel 81 in Chinatown, where she stayed with her two children, Kathleen, three, and Calista, two, exact notice of how long she planned to stay - till yesterday, she said, and paid in advance. There was another reason she did not go and stay with her parents: She had planned for them to be out of town. A few weeks before her death, she invited them to Thailand, and made arrangements for them to arrive in the country on Sunday. But when they got there, she was already in Singapore. Her parents checked into a hotel, and did not suspect anything because they thought her whole family had gone for a short holiday and would be back soon. Said her mother: 'Ah Mei told me she had flown to Hong Kong for a short holiday and would be back in a few days. 'I did not think anything was wrong as her family travels very frequently.' Even her husband, Mr Nicholas Oliver Prud'hon, 26, a French national of Vietnamese-Thai descent who teaches French in a gifted school in Thailand, did not seem to know that his in-laws were in town. It is not known what his wife told him when she left town with their children. Something else was unusual about the visit to Thailand: In the five years since Madam Yap married her husband in 1999 and moved there, her parents never visited them. The last time Madam Yap's mother saw her was when she and her husband brought their two daughters to see her shortly after the Chinese New Year this year. Said her mother, who only wanted to be known as Mrs Yap: 'She arranged for us to go to Thailand for 10 days (till March 31).' As the picture of Madam Yap's movements began to emerge yesterday, it was clear she had something planned. But no one had any idea. The manager of Hotel 81, Mr Ong Swee Leong, said there was only one thing unusual about her: She did not make any calls out, and there were no phone calls for her, either. To the hotel staff, the people who saw her most in the last few days of her life, Madam Yap was like any other guest, except for her two young children. They were a big hit with the staff, and workers there were visibly upset yesterday. Said Mr Ong: 'She was very normal. She did not talk very much, and only spoke to the hotel staff when she went out before lunch and needed them to make up her room. 'The girls were very lively and seemed very happy. 'She even went shopping with them. 'We saw her coming in with the kids carrying shopping bags.' On the morning of her death, Madam Yap dressed up in a cheongsam, as she had during the last three days she had stayed there. And she left the hotel just before 11am, like clockwork. Mr Ong caught up with them as they left. He said: 'I even gave sweets to the two girls, and she told them to say thank you, and goodbye.' That was the last he saw of them. Barely an hour later, Madam Yap and her two girls were found at the foot of Block 53 in Chin Swee Road. Said her mother at the mortuary yesterday morning: 'The family has always travelled together since Kathleen was a baby. And both girls are very attached to their mother. 'She probably took them both with them because she could not bear to leave them behind.' |
what was on her mind? while dressing them up? while walking to the high rise building? OMG.. i dont know! poor girls!
I can't really feel sorry for her either.. in fact it makes me angry and sick to the stomach that she no longer wanted to live whatever was left of her life and made the horrible decision that should mean her girls shouldn't live either
what kind of parent does this.
what kind of parent does this.
Lord have mercy.
| QUOTE |
| Doc: It probably wasn't impulsive act By Salma Khalik THE 34-year-old woman, who fell to her death on Wednesday with her two toddlers, did not do it on impulse, said consultant psychiatrist Adrian Wang. Such a decision would have been building up over some time, said the head of the Mood and Anxiety Clinic at the Institute of Mental Health. He speculated that Madam Yap Cheng Chui could have been suffering from post-natal blues after the birth of her second daughter, Calista, who was two. The older child, Kathleen, was aged three. Such depression affects 13 per cent of mothers and starts two to three months after delivery. It could last a year. According to Associate Professor Elizabeth Nair, a psychology lecturer at the National University of Singapore, women stricken with post-natal depression are 'very good candidates for suicide'. The strain of meeting the extremely demanding needs of such young children can be overwhelming if she were the only caregiver, Prof Nair added. Dr Wang suggested that she could have felt defeated also by her womb cancer. Other factors like the inability to cope with living in another country could add up. Madam Yap, a Singaporean housewife, had lived in Thailand for many years. Depression is caused by a neurochemical imbalance in the brain, which can be corrected with medication. For those who are less severely depressed, counselling or just talking it over with someone could help, said Dr Wang. Women are twice as likely to suffer depression in their lifetime - 5-10 per cent compared to 3-5 per cent of men. There are two 'peak' depression ages. From the mid-20s to late-30s, the 'depression gene' in people genetically predisposed starts to work and, on top of that, their external stress is at its worst - from work, relationships and starting a family. The other peak is among people in their 60s and 70s. 'They are getting old, have stopped work, their friends are dying, and even the maid doesn't listen to them any more,' said Dr Wang. A shocking 15 per cent of depressed people succeed in killing themselves. Madam Yap had her two daughters tied to her wrists with red string when she killed herself. Why? Explained Dr Wang: 'She might have thought, 'If I die, there will be nobody to take care of my children. There will be no one to love them. They will be a burden on the family. My poor children. They might as well go with me'.' He stressed repeatedly that with depressed people, 'their thinking is distorted'. In the three cases last year of parents who killed their children before killing themselves, at least two were known to be in depression. -- Additional reporting by Wong Sher Maine |
thats why, its important.. take a break! dont overwork urself.. hv time for yourself.. and family. we nvr know whats gonna happen.
being a mother myself, I cannot even imagine the depression that must have made this woman take her children with her
She must have really strongly believed that stuff about being reunited in the afterlife etc. to have done something like this...I cant imagine what was going through her mind, its is totally incomprehendable to me
This is heartbreaking.
This is heartbreaking.
| QUOTE |
| Her husband and parents only found out what happened when they arrived in Singapore late on Wednesday, and police gave them the grim news. The shock discovery told on them at the morgue yesterday morning. Both Mr Prud'hon and his mother-in-law came close to collapsing when the bodies of Madam Yap and the two toddlers were released, and sobbed uncontrollably throughout. At the funeral service at Mount Vernon Crematorium yesterday afternoon, Mr Prud'hon tried to clamber into his wife's coffin, while screaming out her name. Reflecting the rushed nature of the proceedings, the service was kept simple and brief, and there were no wreaths or photographs fronting the coffins. Madam Yap's mother was similarly grief-stricken. At the funeral, she cried loudly throughout, and cradled her dead daughter's face and planted kisses on her cheeks. She also pressed her teary cheeks against her grandchildren's coffins and wailed loudly. As his wife's coffin was being closed to be brought to the incineration furnace, relatives had to restrain Mr Prud'hon, who reached into the casket and held onto her. Meanwhile, Madam Yap's mother wailed in Cantonese: 'Why are you so stupid? Do you know how much I love you? Do you know how sad you have made me?' |
| QUOTE |
| RED-STRING DEATH FALL Why, my love? By Faith Teo HIS painful sobs echoed through the hall as he watched the coffins being carried in. Seeing the two little white coffins containing his daughters and the larger brown one containing his wife was simply too much to bear. Mr Nicholas Oliver Prud'hon, a French national of Vietnamese descent, was bent over in grief and had to be supported to his seat. A few minutes later, Madam Yap Cheng Chui's hearse arrived first, followed by another hearse with the two little girls. Gently, carefully, tenderly, his two daughters were laid out one on each side of Madam Yap at Mount Vernon Hall 2. It was what she had wanted. As he took slow steps, supported on both sides by relatives, towards the caskets, Mr Prud'hon seemed to have gained control of his emotions. But the moment he reached one of his daughters, he slumped over her coffin and wailed, talking to her and stroking her head. Eventually, he had to be lifted off the coffin. After a few minutes he moved to his other daughter, and did the same. But his deepest pain was reserved for his wife. He reached into the casket with both hands and held her head gently, all the while talking to her. And then he wailed his heart out. After five minutes, his legs gave way and he sunk to his knees. Distressed relatives picked him up and had to virtually carry him back to the pew. It was all too much to ask a person to bear. One moment he had a happy, healthy family and the next, they were gone. All along he had believed his wife when she said she was touring Hong Kong with the two girls. Then she asked him to rush over to Singapore just minutes before she jumped, and he did, together with her parents who had gone to Thailand to visit her. But he arrived only in time to identify his loved ones' bodies. The funeral itself was a simple one attended only by about 20 relatives. Some were weeping at the carpark before they even stepped into the hall. CALLED OUT GIRLS' NAMES During the half hour that followed, Madam Yap's family members and husband took turns to bid their final goodbyes to their three loved ones. As the coffins were being pushed into the burners to be cremated, Madam Yap's elderly father, who had been quiet throughout the funeral, started calling out his granddaughters' names. 'Calista, Kathleen, gong gong is calling you, do you know?' he wailed. 'Why can't you hear me?' His wife comforted him between sobs by repeating: 'They are good girls, they are so obedient, they are such good girls.' At this point, Mr Prud'hon collapsed, and only came to many minutes after his mother-in-law applied medicated oil to his temples and nostrils. And then he was driven away, dazed and dishevelled, by protective relatives. |
yesterday, i was walking in the neighbourhood shops area, when a lady came and hugged my girls. she said,' good Lord, yours are the same age as hers..' i know what she meant...
my girls are exactly the same age as the girls in the Red String Suicide Case. and my heart tore when the lady keep on hugging them.
before we parted, she keep on saying.. ' take care of them.. take care of them!'
So sad to hear that!
(sorry for me to intrude your lady's thread).
(sorry for me to intrude your lady's thread).
| QUOTE (yuan @ Mar 28 2004, 11:24 PM) |
| So sad to hear that! (sorry for me to intrude your lady's thread). |
ooh, its ok..
we know, guys do hv some soft spot inside them too
This is horrible. May GOD have mercy upon her and the children. I cannot imagine the grief that the families and loved ones must feel over this......
So sad. And shocking.
I do not think there are words that can explain it.
God, what in this world can make a mother kill her own children?
How can desperation reach such a point?
Impossible to understand...
I do not think there are words that can explain it.
God, what in this world can make a mother kill her own children?
How can desperation reach such a point?
Impossible to understand...
Oh my god... this makes me so sad
Those poor little babies... I only hope that they were not scared and felt safe. What was this woman thinking???
I'm going to go give my sleeping daughter (2 next month) a kiss... I am so lucky to have her!!
Those poor little babies... I only hope that they were not scared and felt safe. What was this woman thinking???
I'm going to go give my sleeping daughter (2 next month) a kiss... I am so lucky to have her!!
yes, its horrible...
i cant imagine the kind of despair that was within her.. for her to take the girls together from the 25th floor. its juz beyond thinking...
whatever that has been done, cant be undone. i juz can pray for the girls and their mom. and their dad too...
~neha
i cant imagine the kind of despair that was within her.. for her to take the girls together from the 25th floor. its juz beyond thinking...
whatever that has been done, cant be undone. i juz can pray for the girls and their mom. and their dad too...
~neha
I'm really crying about this...I still can't believe it, that parents can be so cruel and selfish...suicide is selfish at all the worst is to take someone with...
my little son is 22 month old...look at my avatar, that is my beloved son Marlon...my heart nearly burst if I read such horrible stories...
yesterday in my city a little baby girl was found in a cellar, the little baby was lucky...a few hours later ...and the little baby could be dead...mother still unknown
nearly daily I read such horrible stories in the newspaper...: little baby died in the cold night- mother gone...a father tried to kill himself and his kids...he's dead, one son is dead and the alive one very injured..the man just did it, because his wife wanted to divorce...
my little son is 22 month old...look at my avatar, that is my beloved son Marlon...my heart nearly burst if I read such horrible stories...
yesterday in my city a little baby girl was found in a cellar, the little baby was lucky...a few hours later ...and the little baby could be dead...mother still unknown
nearly daily I read such horrible stories in the newspaper...: little baby died in the cold night- mother gone...a father tried to kill himself and his kids...he's dead, one son is dead and the alive one very injured..the man just did it, because his wife wanted to divorce...
| QUOTE (Ayalara @ Apr 1 2004, 05:44 AM) |
| I'm really crying about this...I still can't believe it, that parents can be so cruel and selfish...suicide is selfish at all the worst is to take someone with... my little son is 22 month old...look at my avatar, that is my beloved son Marlon...my heart nearly burst if I read such horrible stories... yesterday in my city a little baby girl was found in a cellar, the little baby was lucky...a few hours later ...and the little baby could be dead...mother still unknown nearly daily I read such horrible stories in the newspaper...: little baby died in the cold night- mother gone...a father tried to kill himself and his kids...he's dead, one son is dead and the alive one very injured..the man just did it, because his wife wanted to divorce... |
awwww... Ayalara.
Marlon is adorable... i know, its hard to read this type of stories. Ive been crying too... but now, i just keep them in my prayers. thanx for dropping by, anyway.
a big hug.. {{{{{Ayalara}}}}}
~neha
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