Maid dies after falling 8 stories despite rescue efforts

A 35-year-old Indonesian woman who was allegedly unhappy died after falling from a window of her employer’s eighth-floor apartment on Friday afternoon in Hougang, Singapore, despite rescue efforts by the employer’s family and neighbors.

The tragedy happened at a public housing block on Hougang Street, Lianhe Wanbao (Singapore) reported on the weekend.

At 3:30pm on Friday, Erniati Binte Mustaan Zohrul, who had served the family for six months, was seen sitting dangerously on a windowsill of the kitchen of the Housing Development Board apartment on the eighth floor of the building.

Neighbors from opposite units and a crowd on the ground floor shouted to the maid and pleaded with her not to take her own life.

At the time of the incident, only the employer’s 20-year-old son and his stroke-stricken grandfather were in the living room. The man dashed into the kitchen after neighbors knocked on the door and informed him of the maid’s peril.

Zohrul, who had gone back into the kitchen but then returned to her perch on the windowsill, suddenly leaned forward, and the employer’s son managed to grab her hands.

A 49-year-old neighbor told Shin Min Daily News that he got the idea of taking a mattress downstairs in an effort to save the dangling maid if she fell.

However, after a struggle of less than five minutes, and just as the mattress was unfolded, the woman fell. She landed on the mattress feet first, but her head hit the ground.

Knocked conscious, she was immediately sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly afterward, as her injuries were too severe.

Police listed the incident as a case of unnatural death and continued their investigation.