Here you go... No charge...
---
Diving trip was meant as surprise for fiancee;
Bernard Lo, 28, who died on Sunday, had bought a condo and had plans to get married
Tracy Sua
A Singaporean bank worker drowned on Sunday in an apparent diving accident off the coast of Sipadan island in Sabah, on a holiday he had taken to surprise his fiancee.
Mr Bernard Lo Wern Terk, 28, left Singapore on Friday with his fiancee and two friends for a weekend trip to the popular diving spot.
On Sunday morning, the group was diving with three Japanese tourists under the supervision of a local diving instructor from the Kapalai Resort, where they were staying.
Local police chief Deputy Superintendent (DSP) Abdul Latif Ibrahim told Malaysian newspaper Sin Chew Daily that the group started their dive at 8am on Sunday.
His fiancee was the first to surface, but could not see Mr Lo.
The group began searching for him, but after half an hour they found his body floating nearby.
Mr Lo was rushed to the local hospital in the town of Semporna, but medical staff there could not resuscitate him.
His body was sent to Tawau Hospital for a post-mortem.
Mortuary staff said the post-mortem was completed yesterday afternoon.
Mr Lo's father and elder brother travelled to Sabah with a few others to identify his body and bring him back to Singapore.
The computer science graduate from the National University of Singapore had just started his career at Citibank in January last year.
His supervisor, director of international personal banking Shyam Sambamurthy, 45, said they had learnt about his death on Monday morning.
Mr Shyam had the tough task of telling about 20 of Mr Lo's colleagues of the tragedy early yesterday morning.
'They were in complete shock and deeply saddened. Mr Lo was extremely well liked. It is a big loss for them and the company,' he said.
The news hit Mr Lo's mother, 60-year-old housewife Madam Ong Hai Boh, particularly hard, as she had tried to persuade him not to go diving.
She had not found out about the trip until last Friday, when he took half a day off from work and she saw him carrying a backpack full of diving gear.
'When I saw the backpack I knew he was going diving. I told him if he wanted to go on a holiday it is okay, but not to go diving because it is dangerous,' she said in Mandarin.
'I do not know when he took lessons, but he said he had already passed his course.'
Mr Lo told her the trip was a surprise for his fiancee.
They had already bought a condominium and had plans to get married.
His fiancee called Madam Ong on Sunday to tell her that Mr Lo had drowned.
'I just don't know how to accept it,' Madam Ong said.
'He wanted to go and now he is never coming back.'
Scuba Susie:
Hey guys,
Could some one re-print the news on this death? I just dove there last year and am interested in what happened.
Thanks
Susie
