SINGAPORE: Evidence presented on Monday in a Singapore investigation revealed a US software engineer was unhappy at work and had written suicide notes before he died last year in what his parents insist was a murder.
Software engineer Shane Truman Todd, 31, was found hanging from a black strap secured to a door and had no visible signs of injury on his body except redness on his forearms and legs, the state counsel’s opening statement said. The strap was fashioned into a noose, and a white towel also was around his neck.
Police found no signs of forced entry into the apartment, but they did find links to suicide websites on his laptop and suicide letters written to Todd’s family members and loved ones.
Parents Rick and Mary Todd, who attended the inquest, told The Associated Press in March they consider the evidence fake. They believe he may have been murdered over his research in the US into material used to make heat-resistant semiconductors, a technology with both civilian and military applications.
Rick Todd said his son in early 2012 had expressed concerns to his parents that he was being asked to compromise US security. But he said Shane Todd wasn’t specific.
His parents traveled from their home in the US state of Montana to Singapore days after his death last June and found his belongings packed as if he intended to leave for good and saw no signs of a hanging, such as marks on the door.
Mary Todd also said the alleged suicide note was obviously fake because it thanked the Institute of Microelectronics, the former employer he had grown to hate, and had other false details. (Agencies)
