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The times of the strait
Oct 20, 2020
A depressed mother strangled her five-year-old son at home before stabbing himself to death near the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, a coroner investigation found.
The boy was autistic and had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Nami Ogata, 41, a Japanese national, was worried and stressed about him. She also told the doctors that she couldn’t cope with work and taking care of her two children.
Madame Nami left a suicide note addressed to her husband, apologizing for his actions and telling him to take care of their youngest son.
He then drove to Lorong Sesuai to kill himself, taking the dead boy’s body with him.
The state coroner Kamala Ponnampalam ruled that Madame Nami’s death was a “deliberate act of suicide” and that her son’s death was an “illegal homicide at the hands of his mother” in his findings, which were made public on Monday (19 October).
The findings indicate that Madame Nami had sought medical attention for her low mood and anxiety, and had told a psychiatrist about her suicidal thoughts and feelings of depression at least three days before the fatal incident on November 14 of last year.
The mother of two told the doctor that she had been anxious for the past few months and was sleeping poorly. She had also experienced loss of appetite, weight, and hair, and had palpitations for about a week.
She also told the psychiatrist that she was stressed over her son Sotaro, without revealing the exact reasons, the state coroner found.
Madam Nami had been immediately referred to the Singapore General Hospital emergency medicine department, where she denied being actively suicidal but said she had felt depressed for a year.
She had been discharged, with medication for insomnia, and her private psychiatrist would check on her the next day.
Ms Nami later told her private psychiatrist that “she would not harm herself because of her children,” although she had “a brief transitory episode of thinking about ending her life a week earlier,” according to the coroner’s report. .
She was diagnosed with a major depressive disorder and was given antidepressants and a tranquilizer to stabilize her mood.
Ms. Nami wrote in her suicide note that the medications did not work and told her husband that she was “going to take Sotaro” with her. He also repeatedly asked her to take good care of her youngest son.
Her husband had left Singapore for a business trip to China on October 30 and had not felt anything unusual when he last spoke to her on November 10, according to the state coroner.
Mrs. Nami also wrote to her brother, pleading with him to raise her youngest son along with her children.
On the night of November 13, Madam Nami read storybooks to her two children until they fell asleep, according to her maid.
She later texted her maid to tell her that she had taken Sotaro to the hospital because he was “having a fever.”
However, police investigations showed that Madame Nami likely strangled Sotaro in the living room with a long rubber band and raffia rope.
She then left her condo, her son’s body covered with a white blanket, around 5.40am and arrived in Lorong Sesuai about 10 minutes later.
An auxiliary police officer and his colleague found Sotaro in Madame Nami’s parked car around 6.15am and called the police. They then discovered Madame Nami’s body about 10 meters from the car, after reviewing images from closed-circuit television cameras.
The two were pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
HELP LINES
Singapore Samaritans: 1800-221-4444
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Mental Health Institute Mobile Crisis Service: 6389-2222
Care Corner Counseling Center (Mandarin): 1800-353-5800
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