A man, 31, and a woman, 30, have been charged in court on Sep. 17 with the murder of their biological daughter.

This was after the burnt corpse of the child was found in a metal pot inside a HDB flat at Chin Swee Road.

It was initially assumed the remains belonged to a foetus.

It was subsequently reported that the crime took place in 2014, and the police were only alerted to the case on Sep. 10, 2019, at 8:30pm.

Many questions by the public have been raised about how the corpse was only discovered more than five years after the murder.

Members of the public speculate

According to Singapore Chinese-language newspaper, Shin Min Daily News, after the case became known, members of the public found it difficult to comprehend how the corpse was only found more than five years after the toddler was murdered.

They then speculated that the toddler's corpse had been hidden in a freezer, which was how the odour was masked.

Some of them also suspected that the corpse was placed in the freezer after it was burnt.

A 65-year-old cleaner surnamed Zhang told Shin Min about the speculation: "The corpse was left undiscovered for such a long time, it might have been hidden in the fridge, otherwise it's impossible for it not to smell."

Five questions left unanswered

While the couple has been arrested, there are still several questions yet to be answered regarding the case.

Shin Min pointed out the following questions:

1. Who burnt the corpse? While it is known that the toddler was murdered by her parents, it is still unknown if the corpse was burnt before it was hidden.
2. If the toddler was already two-and-a-half years old before her death, how did the corpse manage to fit in the metal pot? Had it been mutilated?
3. Considering that the toddler was two-and-a-half years old, she should’ve interacted with other relatives and neighbours before. How was her death unknown when it was so sudden? 
4. If the parents were arrested for drug abuse in 2018, has their flat been searched before? If so, how was the corpse not found then?
5. During the time when the suspects were detained, the children should have been under the care of friends, relatives or the relevant authorities. Why did no one notice that the toddler was missing? Was the girl's whereabouts looked into or investigated?

The toddler's parents have since been charged with murder.

Police have also revealed that the toddler's father has been arrested since June last year, and is still detained currently.

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Top image collage by Alper Çuğun and stu_spivack, both via Flickr