S'porean girl, 15, died during Maldives school trip, parents still can't get answers from authorities there 8 months later

Eight months after the death of their daughter in the Maldives, Alan Chan and Jennifer Liauw have found themselves tangled in an impossible web of questions and dead ends.

Singaporean Jenna Chan, 15, died after being hit by a boat propeller on a school trip there in November 2024.

There has been no closure for the family. The accident happened overseas, outside of Singapore's legal jurisdiction. Investigations trail on without end.

Still they trudge on in search of answers. Why did their daughter die?

The incident

When Chan speaks with me over a Zoom call, he does not refer to his daughter's death as an "accident".

"It's negligence, there was definitely negligence involved," he says. The question in his mind is who, and how much.

He tells me what he knows of the incident.

On the morning of Nov. 8, 2024, the students from St. Joseph's Institution International (SJII) were out on a boat trip to swim with the dolphins.

The boat had stopped; the water was calm. The students lined up to get into the water. A female teacher was first, another student second. Jenna was next.

"When she gets in, the boats starts moving. It knocks her in the face, she's knocked unconscious... she gets sucked in by the propeller," Chan says.

"At least that's what we think happened, based on CT scans."

Fed up with the lack of answers, Chan flew to the Maldives himself in March. Liauw is a surgeon, and they know radiologists.

Not without some difficulty, they got hold of the scans, which were conducted in a Maldivian hospital after Jenna's death.

They learnt that Jenna's pelvis had been smashed and her legs twisted. Her guts were out. It's a gory picture that Chan paints.

Another teacher dove into the water to retrieve Jenna's body. When he emerged, the boat crew "just watched" as he struggled to climb on board.

"They didn't even help him get the body on board. The kids did... so they were traumatised, quite traumatised."

Questions raised

Chan and Liauw say they weren't informed of what happened to their daughter until over 45 minutes after she was declared dead.

"Other parents knew that someone had died before we did," Chan tells me. A few students who had phones with them called their parents, distraught at the tragedy they'd seen.

When they did receive the call, they were told that "Jenna fell into the water and got hit by a propeller".

It was only later that they learnt the truth. Their daughter hadn't "fallen in", either by carelessness or accident; she had gotten into the water.

She had permission. The boat's engine wasn't supposed to be on.

Furthermore, "she's risk averse, a bit of a teacher's pet", as Chan puts it.

She would never have put a toe out of line, even barring that she was a minor legally incapable of negligence.

Other inconsistencies began to emerge. The police report "didn't describe our kid at all", Chan says.

One example: A teacher, apparently interviewed by the Maldivian police, was quoted as having said that Jenna was a weak swimmer and needed extra attention from the teachers.

"She's been swimming since she was four months old," Chan said. "That doesn't ring true."

A jurisdictional vacuum

The next eight months brought painfully few answers, even as their search now spanned three countries.

In Singapore, the family contacted "every single government agency possible".

SJII itself has remained tight-lipped, citing legal and insurance concerns, and being bound by the still-incomplete police investigation.

In the UK, the family spoke to the press about the expedition organisers, a British-registered research charity called the Maldives Whale Shark Research programme (MWSRP).

The charity is now being investigated for potential breach of regulations, according to The Times.

In the Maldives, the police appear to have made limited progress on the investigation.

But there's little the Chans can do about that, here in Singapore.

They've spoken to their Member of Parliament Sim Ann, written in to President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and emailed Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has rendered assistance to the Maldivian authorities. The Maldivian police even flew down to interview witnesses.

But the issue of no jurisdiction remains.

Chan believes that if investigations keep being delayed, the statute of limitations for civil action will run out.

"It's a jurisdictional vacuum," Chan says. "Nobody can help because of the circumstances of the case."

Search for closure

In December 2024, the Ministry of Education (MOE) informed the family that SJII is a privately-funded school, and not directly governed by the authorities.

A spokesperson from MOE confirmed with Mothership that it will not be investigating the management of SJII.

"Privately-funded schools (PFS), including SJII, are private schools set up to cater to international students and Singaporean students who prefer an alternative schooling option," the spokesperson said.

"These schools are outside the mainstream school system and have autonomy over their operations, policies and governance."

To support the safety and well-being of Singaporean students in PFSs, MOE conducts regular exchanges with PFSs to share best practices, including on overseas trips planning considerations and safety measures.

The spokesperson said that SJII has established safety processes for overseas trips, which were adhered to for the school’s trip to the Maldives in November 2024.

"We also understand that the Board [of Governers] has convened a board-led review into the incident, which includes a review of SJII’s safety processes.

We have encouraged the parents and SJII to work together to find out the cause of the incident."

MOE added:

"We are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of the student and our condolences are with her family and loved ones.

The Singapore government has been in contact with her family since the incident and providing support where possible, within the ambit of our laws and regulations."

The school has since resumed its overseas expeditions, sans its Maldives trips.

Michael Johnston, chief executive officer of SJII, separately told Mothership that the school has been working to re-examine its protocols for overseas expeditions.

But this review cannot be fully completed without the investigation results from the Maldivian authorities.

"Despite repeated requests, the school has not been provided with any information and/or documents from the Maldivian authorities relating to their investigations and findings," he said.

Gaps remain

The world tries to move on without Jenna. But her parents aren't ready to let the issue go.

While MOE says the school adhered to its safety processes, Chan believes that gaps remain.

He points out that SJII wrote its own procedures and rules.

"If you've done everything correctly, a child should not have died," he says. He's since launched a petition, demanding regulatory accountability for privately-funded schools.

The couple has given multiple interviews to the press and put together a video documentary, titled "Tides of Injustice: Jenna's Last Swim".

"What really happened to Jenna," it's written on the documentary website, justiceforjenna.org.

Due to the emotional strain, Liauw has scaled back on her work as a colorectal surgeon.

Chan fights back tears during our interview. It's evidently exhausting, having to rehash your daughter's death, again and again.

"I suppose so," he says, when I mention this, "but it's like my wife says. They killed us already, on the eighth of November. There's nothing they can do to us now...Life has just become empty."

In the background of the Zoom call, there are two children's crayon drawings pinned up on a wall. Evidence of Jenna, despite her savage excision from their lives eight months earlier.

Chan describes her as a ray of light, someone who makes you happy just being in the room.

"I just love her so much," he says.

Top image from justiceforjenna website