I haven't been following the coroner's inquiry into Shane Todd's (at least I now remember his name) death closely. I just learned that Mary Todd, his mom is a pastor. That explains their behavior to me. This is a very very important fact. Many American Christians (here too) believe that those who have committed suicide will go to hell. I can now empathize with the family how desperately they need to know that Shane did not kill himself. Their need to be 110% sure is understandable and they happen to be well connected and resourced to be able pursue this as far as we have seen.
This has the potential to turn into a serious problem. Assuming if it is proven in the end that Shane Todd died at his own hands, there will be enough people who would not buy into that. I don't know what influence they could exercise in the media and corridors of power in America. I only know this government is not very good in dealing with the irrational.
There is no end to how far you can speculate. Just consider the testimony of their expert witness, whose credibility even if it wears a little thin now is offering the family straws to grasp.
Dr Adelstein added however, that he still believes Dr Todd's death to be a homicide.
When questioned by Senior Counsel Isaac Tan as to what caused Dr Todd's death, Dr Adelstein suggested that he could have died from a taser or from a carotid armlock or a neck chokehold - but admitted he did not have medical evidence and could not know for sure.
Dr Adelstein added that he believes that Dr Todd was already dead when he was "strung up with the ligature around his neck".
He confirmed however, that he was not a certified forensic pathologist.
To those who wants to believe what they have set their minds to, it wouldn't matter if Dr. Adelstein isn't trained in forensics. Now you can go and speculate how there was a taser, a carotid armlock or neck chokehold. Who knows what else they could think up. This will have the makings of the X-Files if they want to and continue to believe that Shane Todd was murdered and the truth remains out there.
Well we also know we have an enemy: The Financial Times. I think we should look for opportunities to fix them properly. And because I don't represent the government, I can get away with this suggestion!
Update: May 22 8:25am
If I didn't blog about it, I probably spend no time thinking about it. Since I have, my latest wishful thoughts were that there was video evidence (totally unrealistic and awful). We are never going to establish how Shane Todd die beyond the shadow of a doubt. In the end we are just going to get a this is a process and that is the result it has produced outcome. Those who have faith in the process will go along just as believers and detractors now will stick to their positions. Myself, I am aghast because people lied and trust has evaporated. Especially the family lied about how they came to possess the hard disc and worse, FT for sloppy research and committing that to an article I assumed to have integrity. It shook my faith in our police then. How can I not be very unhappy with FT. They should just stick to reporting what they are good at.
We will never be 100% sure :-(
Update: May 22: 1:20pm
What impressed me is that they met with the US ambassador in the evening. I will never get such courtesy or privilege were I in trouble in the USA and needed help. When I compare the average American and us, at home our government looks after us much better than theirs. Never mind it used to be better, but even Hilary Clinton didn't think it absurd to ask LHL how we are dealing with the wealth gap.
The Todds aren't your regular Americans. They are influential and well connected. I wonder what's next from them. My guess is that they will keep a low profile and have the worst opinion of us. Going public will only cause them embarrassment and forced to deal with the painful facts they are trying to tune out as lies.
Back home, we must run Singapore in such a way that we never have our Todds that could command such attention from the government. They were more equal than most US tax payers. A very unequal society that even opportunities are now also unequal.
Bharadvaj made a fair statement,be fair and be seen to be fair.
ReplyDeleteBharadvaj | May 18 1:55am | Permalink
It's lame for the authorities to say that they didn't suspect a foul play. Firstly, it's a young expat. Secondly, it's a case of unnatural death. The guy had already resigned from his employment and was purportedly leaving for his home country in next two days' time. Under the circumstances, one cannot rule out any possibility. The Police may not have had reasons to suspect foul play yet, but they had no reasons to rule out such possibility either.
Police has acted mechanically like an algorithm without keeping in mind the potential possibilities and sensitivities in this case. Certainly, the way this case has been handled asks for soul searching, something is not quite right.
As an totally impartial observer, based on all the evidence presented thus far it is really 50/50 as to whether it was suicide or foul play. The reason why it is so difficult to say is because the investigation was carried out as if it were a suicide from the very beginning. Had they not jumped to such a conclusion from the start, the investigation and subsequent evidence collected could have been very different. The parents are also at a clear disadvantage because they have not been involved in the investigation, would have very little evidence and are left to speculate. Thus far, it has been unanimous among everyone who testified that he did not display any suicidal tendencies, and everything in his life and in his apartment pointed to someone about to return home, not commit suicide. Also, the fact that the only evidence indicating he was about to commit suicide is on his computer, which is something easily hacked and altered means it could have been a meticulously well planned event carried out with involvement from a third party. It's probably too late now to ever know the truth for sure.
ReplyDeleteYou clearly weren't in Court when they presented the forensic findings on his computer.
DeleteIf everyone who attempted suicide displayed suicidal tendencies I'm sure their family and friends would stop them. Reality of the matter is that many times you don't know.
DeleteI didn't say suicide was not a possibility - clearly it is, hence why I say 50/50. But the fact is, anything can be put on a computer and be made to appear that it occurred in the past. In fact, with meticulous planning, it would be possible to build a fake history over a period of time leading up to the final event. I'm not saying that is what happened, but anyone who says that is not a possibility is just being closed minded or lacks an understanding of computer science. There clearly isn't enough evidence to say it was suicide with 100% certainty. However, there probably is enough evidence to say he died by hanging - whether he hanged himself or someone else hanged him is another question. If he wasn't physically forced - he could have agreed to give his own life to spare the life of his girlfriend or his family.
DeleteI agree with PengYou...I have this theory, let say I speculate..Shane suicide note to his Mum that it was better do it now then later when he returned home and wanted his Mum to know it wasn't her fault, actually explained that he wasn't happy to return home and it was clearly his Mum's fault all along since childhood( Church's Pastor, influential and well connected) Sort of a living in the spotlight, clean, well behaved well repected kind of thing. He chose to come here to work just to get away from his well repected family. he never have happiness and his Filipino girlfriend was his happiest encounter in his life. In short he harboured great unhappiness in his heart which explained why he can never achieved satisfaction in whatever he did.I belived these are the reasons he chose to end his life here. The way his parents behaved, disrepectful of our Court and discrediting our Police Force are really uncalled for. Remember how his Mum said to reporters("we came here with our TEAM..not ADVERSARIAL..") Ugly American at work, clearly! Is this the way American people behaved outside thier country?
ReplyDeleteIn American culture, respect has to be earned - it doesn't come automatically with position or authority. America would still be British if that were the case. This culture is also why, despite the mother's position, this family would be considered ordinary - far from influential - much less well connected. It looks to me that you are trying to apply a totally different cultural prism to the situation.
DeleteThe doctor was a poor choice, and as a result I think they bought into some other theories that were easy to disprove - and if there was foul play it was much more sophisticated than they imagined. Still, this is just an unfortunate distraction from what could have happened.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how you conclude he had an unhappy childhood. Didn't see or hear any evidence of that.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is not the job of Todd family to prove murder, it's the job of Spore Police to prove suicide. That is how the local media has twisted things and blinded Sporeans.
ReplyDeleteSo far, the Police has not proven suicide.
Depression: An elaborate picture was painted that Shane was under stress. But stress is no more an excuse once Shane had left IME. So how? Has Police presented any evidence of story of stress after Shane is no more under IME? Folks, let me remind you all that it is not our job to imagine and speculate why should Shane be stressed when he is not working for IME, it is the job of Police to show us. This they failed to do, right?
Suicide Note: Suicide note was found in his laptop, but the door was not locked. Anyone could have entered and stolen the laptop. Remember that Shane had earlier told his parents that people are out to kill him? If Shane decides to kill himself, would he be so careless in telling his family this? Is Shane so silly that he did not lock his door to make sure the laptop is not stolen and his suicide note not lost? Or simply write it on paper, nobody wants to steal a piece of paper, right?
Websites on suicide: the evidence is in plain sight, although the media hid it well. Shane had a friend (Andrew) who died and Shane suspected it was suicide. If his colleagues did not agree, don't you think Shane would look up the internet to support his suspicions? There were more searches on the last few days before he died. This only goes to show that he was no more burden with work stuff, was very free to search internet and convince his friends before he returns to America.
Hanging: The State forensic specialist took great pains to show that Shane could hang himself from the door. That he was not garroted. So what? It is at least equally likely that he was hung there by assailants. Further, if you consider that his feet touched the floor, that the chair was still upright, and that the chair was standing on a towel, the likelihood veer to the direction of murder and not suicide. The heated debate on garroting was played up for show, until you did not realise that Police have not proven Shane was not hung up by assailants.
Pulley and holes: The police detective has testified that he did not mention these items. But read carefully, he admitted that Todd family questioned him on this. This is interesting, if the Todds can remember how they got the misinformation, we could get a lead to who the murderers are. But over and above these, it has no relevance on whether Shane hang himself or was hung up.
No ransack: I do not blame the police to be misled that it's a suicide at the scene. But now that we learn more, the fact that there's no ransack has no relevance. They are out to kill him, not to rob him. There's no reason for us to imagine they are looking for anything in his apartment. So how is this a proof that it's suicide?
So far, I have laid out just about everything that is provided to prove it's suicide, and each item is entirely unsatisfactory. If some of the stuff is new to you, it just proves that the media has done magic to block your view. I've also left out lots of other stuff that is not relevant. If we do not lose our focus, we will see that Police have shown us no evidence of suicide.
shane had a phD in engineer but don't know how to tied a simple knot?
Deletethis is a f--k joke
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletefake
DeleteThis is a lie the choke neck abrasions not there is some photos
ReplyDeleteeven babies choke on a blind string
ReplyDeleteDr Adelstein is a liar the autopsy was not Shane Todd the never word long shirt in the autopsy he had sleeves shane and Shirley never together it's been Photoshopped if you look close there is something wrong with pictures all fake
ReplyDelete