David Widjaja’s senior Zhou Zheng hanged himself; he was seen praying and burning incense papers after Widjaja’s suicide

Translated from Lianhe Wanbao

5 days after NTU student David Widjaja plunged to his death after allegedly stabbing his professor, his senior from the same Division of Electrical and Electronic Engineering was found hanging in the balcony in his apartment at Block 101C Nanyang Heights, where staff and graduate students reside.

Zhou, from Hubei, China, graduated with a Second Class Upper Honours from the NTU’s Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department in July last year.

He started work with a company right after graduation but was laid off two months later.

After looking for a job for several months, he joined NTU as an infocomm project officer at the university’s School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering on March 2.

The police was alerted last night at 10.42pm by a flatmate who found the deceased hanging in the balcony motionless. He was pronounced dead on arrival by the paramedics. The police has classified the case as an unnatural cause of death.

Before deceased hanged himself, he was often seen burning incense papers at the entrance of his apartment. A foreign couple said they had some impression of the deceased though they do not know him in person.

“The resident of that unit always leave the door open. We often saw him burning incense papers and praying at the entrance.”

Zhou Zheng lived together with a flatmate who is also from China. The flatmate who called the police found the deceased hanging in the balcony at level 4 and was scared stiff on the spot. He quickly carried the deceased down, but felt his body was already cold and without breath.

The deceased hanged himself using a black colored plastic bag. The police found a letter at the scene. The deceased’s family had been informed and they will fly from China to arrange for his funeral.

In a statement released Saturday, NTU said professional counsellors and senior university officers were activated on site to offer support.

EDITORS’ NOTE:

This is another interpretation of the second suicide which is going around in the neighborhood kopitiams. Zhou Zheng may have “seen” the “spirit” of Widjaja hanging around in the laboratory where he worked and was traumatized. That’s why he was seen praying, burning incense papers and leaving the door of his unit open. He may have committed suicide because he was unable to stand the sight of the apparition. According to Chinese folklore, human beings who died violently, prematurely or unjustly often linger around at the place where they spent their last days. They have to be “chao1 du4″ by a Taoist priest within 49 days to soothe their grievances so that they can be reborn into a better realm of existence.