SINGAPORE: A Singapore coroner ruled yesterday that US scientist Shane Todd found hanged in 2012 committed suicide during a bout of depression and was not murdered as his family claimed.
The US government said the inquiry was “comprehensive, fair and transparent”.
The body of 31-year-old was discovered by his girlfriend in his flat in June 2012 and his parents refused to accept Singapore police findings that he had killed himself.
The family, citing documents found in Todd’s computer files, had said he was working on a secret project with military applications and murdered as part of a conspiracy involving his former employer, Singapore’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME), and China’s Huawei Technologies, accused by the US of involvement in espionage.
There was no immediate reaction from the family to the verdict.
Coronor Chay said the evidence also showed that Todd had suffered a relapse of depression. Witnesses earlier testified that he had suffered from the condition as university student.
IME and Huawei said they only held preliminary talks on a potential project with commercial applications, but did not proceed. Their star witness, US pathologist Edward Adelstein, recanted an earlier theory that Todd was garroted with a cord in his own apartment. Instead he presented a new scenario: Todd was killed by assassins who made his death look like suicide.
Chay rejected Adelstein’s testimony, calling it “nothing short of bizarre and extremely unhelpful in the way that it detracted from the critical pathological issues before the court”.
The US said Todd’s family “was given the opportunity to participate in the hearing and was represented by experienced Singapore legal counsel”. Todds’ lawyer Gloria James-Civetta said the family would issue a statement on their website Justice 4 Shane Todd.
The death was thrust into the spotlight after Financial Times said in February that the family suspected he was murdered because of his work on an IME-Huawei project involving gallium nitride, a semiconductor material with military and commercial applications. AFP
