Maid who stabbed herself to death was in 'disturbed state of mind': State Coroner
The case of a 35-year-old Filipino maid who stabbed herself to death at her workplace in Joo Chiat was ruled a suicide at a coroner’s inquiry on Tuesday (7 February).
State Coroner Marvin Bay said in the State Courts that there was no basis to suspect foul play as Alison Samontanes had shown increasingly uncharacteristic behaviour before her death.
The court heard that on September 1 last year, Samontanes was found in an unresponsive state in her residence by her employer, Lai Lara Magno, who then called the police.
Samontanes was found with a 2-cm stab wound on her abdomen and blood stains in the same area on her T-shirt. A kitchen knife that was stained with blood at the tip was found on the floor about a metre away.
There were also no signs of ransack or struggle within the residence, and valuables were found intact.
A few days before the day of the incident on 26 August, Magno found that Samontanes was not her usual self and appeared disorientated and nervous. Samontanes constantly complained that the settings of her Xiaomi and Oppo mobile phones were changed for no particular reason and that unknown applications had appeared.
The next day, Samontanes approached Magno for help to delete her Facebook account as she was concerned that people were monitoring her movements on the social media site.
A day before the stabbing incident, Samontanes was mumbling to herself and seemed to be in a daze, claiming that she was seeing “lights” and “sparkles”, according to Magno.
Samontanes’ niece, Terania Quimpo, testified that her aunt had a history of nervous breakdowns.
Magno and her husband also found Samontanes acting differently in the days leading up to the incident, and that she was unable to carry out the daily household chores.
To understand her maid’s mental state, Magno sought the help of her cousin, psychologist Jasmine Pang. After Pang spoke to Samontanes in private, she advised Magno to send Samontanes for a medical assessment.
Bay found the testimonies to be broadly consistent with his findings and said that the maid had been “plagued by delusional beliefs”.
He added that the evidence points to Samontanes being in a “disturbed state of mind when she stabbed herself with a kitchen knife.”
