SINGAPORE — An executive of funeral services firm Harmony Funeral Care who mistook one body for another — resulting in the wrongful cremation of one of the deceased — was “pretty sure” he had taken the correct body when he was first quizzed by his boss about it. 

In a statement issued by the firm to the family affected by the mix-up, Mr Nicholas Ang Kai, 23, recounted the events on Dec 29 and 30 last year. He said he had collected the body of Chia Soon Chuan from his family home the day before the mix-up and delivered it to funeral parlour Century Products Company for washing. 

He covered the body with a white cloth, on which he wrote the name of his company, the address from which he had received the body and instructions on how to handle the deceased.

The next morning, he was to retrieve Chia’s body from Century Products and take it to Mandai Crematorium. 

“I then entered the embalming room alone and noticed a body that did not have a white cloth covering on top,” he wrote in the statement that was seen by TODAY.

“From a distance I noticed the body looked similar to the body I received the day before so I approached it to confirm that it was the same body. As I approached the deceased I verified it as the body that I had received.”

Although the white cloth was missing, Mr Ang proceeded to retrieve the body and place it in a coffin to take to the crematorium, “as I was sure at that point in time that it was the same body I had collected”.

In fact, Mr Ang had taken the body of Kee Kin Tiong, 82, who was not meant to be cremated that morning. 

A few days after the mix-up, Harmony Funeral Care issued a copy of Mr Ang’s statement — which was printed with the company letterhead — to Kee’s family, after they had demanded a chronology of what happened. 

TODAY reached out to Harmony Funeral Care on Friday (Jan 17) to verify it, but the company declined to comment.

Kee’s family has since sent legal letters to Harmony Funeral Care, Century Products, Mr Ang and Tan Khiam Soon Undertaker, the company they had engaged to handle Kee’s funeral, demanding public apologies and compensation.

Continuing his account, Mr Ang wrote that he and a colleague then left for Mandai Crematorium with the body they had collected from Century Products, arriving at 8.30am.

During the service at 8.50am, Mr Ang and his colleague offered to open the coffin for the son of Chia, for him to see his father one last time before the cremation, but the son “insisted on not opening the casket”.

It was only around 9.30am, when Mr Ang was rushing to another funeral at Bukit Batok Central, when he received a call from his boss, Harmony Funeral Care founder Harmony Tee, asking if he was sure he had taken the right body from Century Products to Mandai Crematorium.

“To which I replied I’m pretty sure I took the correct body,” he wrote.

Mr Ang said he then received further instructions from Ms Tee, 26, to meet the embalmer at Century Products and clear the situation.

By the time he arrived at the embalming room at 10.18am to meet Ms Tee and the staff of Century Products, it had already been confirmed that he had taken the wrong body, and the others demanded an explanation from him.

“I couldn’t give an answer at the time as I was mortified by the grave mistake I had caused,” he wrote.

“One by one everyone left the embalming room”, to try and figure out the next steps to take, he added.

Mr Ang and Ms Tee then went to Rivervale Crescent, where Kee’s wake was meant to be held, to break the news to his family about what had happened and how.

A statement by Harmony Funeral Care issued earlier this month, which did not name Mr Ang, said that the employee responsible for the mix-up had been suspended, pending investigations.