Saturday 23 February 2013
Murder in Singapore?
Halfway around the world in Singapore, a brilliant young electronics engineer with ties to the Flathead Valley was found dead in his apartment last June.
Shane Todd, the oldest son of Rick and Mary Todd of Marion, was hanging from a bathroom door when his girlfriend stopped by after she hadn’t heard from him for a couple of days. The Singapore police deemed the mysterious death an apparent suicide.
But the circumstantial evidence the Todds found at their son’s apartment, along with what they knew to be true about their son and all sorts of other far-reaching clues, didn’t add up to him taking his own life.
Shane was working for the Institute for Micro Electronics, a subsidiary of the Singaporean government-run Agency for Science, Technology and Research. A small hard drive the Todds found at their son’s apartment — information inadvertently left behind by police who confiscated Shane’s computers, cellphone and diary — detailed plans for a project that involved IME and Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies.
It was high-tech work.
The two companies planned to develop an amplifier device powered by a semiconductor material able to withstand heat and power levels way beyond silicon.
Shane had been worried for months that the project he was working on was compromising U.S. national security, his parents said. At some point he began fearing for his life. In fact, he had told his mother exactly what to do if she hadn’t heard from him for a week. She was to email him and if he didn’t call back immediately, Mary was to alert the U.S. Embassy.
Later, after having an American pathologist study photos of their son’s body and the autopsy report, a scenario quite different from the one given by Singapore authorities emerged.
They believe their son was murdered, that he fought off an attacker and died by a garroting.
It’s a plot that has all the ingredients of an international thriller.
Film producers already are nipping at the Todds’ heels for the rights to make Shane’s story into a movie. But here at home on their ranch near Marion, the Todds still are searching for the truth of what happened in Singapore.
Was their son killed for what he knew?
In the aftermath of their son’s tragic death, the Todds begged the U.S. government to investigate.
“I wrote to all the government agencies — the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], Homeland Security, the FBI, CIA, the State Department. No one listened,” Mary said.
The Todds implored the national news media to cover the story. Again, their pleas fell on deaf ears.
They said the only elected official whose staff was helpful was Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.
Tester spokesman Dan Malessa said the senator’s staff was in touch directly with the State Department, the embassy in Singapore and with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Staff helped the Todds arrange their December meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Singapore and coordinated communications and a meeting request between the Todds and ICE,” Malessa said. “Our staff continues to monitor the situation with the State Department and to support the Todds as they work with various government agencies to understand what happened to their son.”
As the Todds sought to bring attention to Shane’s death, Rick got in touch with a friend who played golf with Raymond Bonner, an award-winning investigative journalist.
Bonner and a second writer, Christine Spolar, the investigations editor for the Financial Times, pored over every detail of the case. The Financial Times published an extensive report on Feb. 15.
Since then Shane’s story finally has reverberated with national news organizations. The Todds had just gotten off the phone with CNN when they stopped by the Daily Inter Lake on Tuesday for an interview.
“The more exposure, the better,” Rick said.
They believe generating interest in the case ultimately will lead to their goal of a congressional investigation.
Shane headed to Singapore in 2010 for a life of adventure after finishing his doctorate at the University of California-Santa Barbara, where he researched silicon-based transmission lines.
As he worked on IME and Huawei’s project to develop an amplifying device powered by gallium nitride, he became increasingly concerned that his work was compromising U.S. national security.
When Shane was asked to find equipment for the gallium nitride research, he found that Veeco, a publicly traded company in New York, could manufacture what was needed for the project, according to the Financial Times. He left Singapore to get training at the Veeco offices in January 2012.
A proposal drafted by IME that outlines Shane’s directive to train with Veeco engineers also noted that “Veeco has also stated that they will not directly transfer the best-known method recipes to our tool, rather we will copy the recipe firsthand during our visit,” the Financial Times’ article revealed.
“In a tender for the equipment, also found in Shane’s files, the GaN (gallium nitride) recipe is referenced: ‘Can share during training but not available for technology transfer,’” the article continued, adding another portion of the IME memo that stated “Any potential connection with Huawei would be problematic for Veeco and for IME because Huawei has been deemed a security risk by powerful U.S. lawmakers.”
A U.S. House intelligence committee last year warned, after an 11-month probe, that it suspected communications equipment made by Huawei could be used for spying, the Financial Times reported.
Shane became more and more anxious about his role in the project. He confided in his parents, telling them he was really worried. They told him to quit his job and come back to Montana. But Shane felt he had to honor the terms of his employment.
“You have to understand who Shane was,” his father said. “He was a man of honor.”
Shane had given IME a 60-day notice that he would be leaving, then agreed to work another 30 days to train someone on the equipment with which he had been working.
He had also told his parents he was worried that if he left early he wouldn’t be able to “get his money out of Singapore,” Mary said.
By early April 2012, Shane’s state of mind prompted him to consult with a psychiatrist in Singapore, who noted Shane’s “increase in work stress with progressive difficulty coping.”
The doctor noted his low mood but didn’t witness any suicidal “ideations,” the Financial Times investigation revealed. The psychiatrist prescribed an antidepressant and told Shane to come back in three weeks, but he never returned for a follow-up appointment.
“The heartache for both of us is so great,” Mary said, recalling her son’s anguish those final weeks.
She said she “asked him all the mom questions — are you eating, are you sleeping, things like that.” Then she point-blank asked: “Do you want me to come?”
He said no.
Mary keeps replaying that conversation in her mind.
“I wish we’d gone,” she said.
Shane had purchased a plane ticket back to Montana, where he planned to spend a month or two at the family ranch decompressing before he started a new job with Nuvotronics, an American research firm that collaborates with the Department of Defense and NASA.
A week before he was to return to the United States, Shane was dead.
The Financial Times’ story details the police report, which stated Shane had drilled holes into his bathroom wall, “bolted a pulley, then slipped a black strap through the pulley and wrapped it around the toilet several times.”
He then tethered the strap to his neck and jumped off a chair, the police report said.
The Todds met with the Singapore police as soon as they arrived. As authorities shared two suicide notes, they immediately were suspicious. The text sounded nothing like their son.
“One [note] praised IME and its management,” the Financial Times wrote. “Another apologized for being a burden to his family. Neither sounded like Shane.”
Mary said Shane had never been a burden to his family. “He had excelled at everything he put his mind to,” she said.
As for praising his employer, Mary said Shane had confided “he hated the way IME was run and the way its top management treated people.”
What the Todds found at Shane’s apartment further solidified their theory of foul play.
“The front door was open and there was no evidence of an investigation — no crime-scene tape, no smudges from fingerprint searches.”
And nothing in the bathroom matched the description in the police report. There were no bolts or screws in the wall; the toilet was in a different location than what the report stated.
In the rest of the apartment it was clear Shane was wrapping up his life in Singapore. Boxes were packed; there were clothes in the dryer. His plane ticket was on the dining table.
Shane’s colleagues said he had been upbeat on his last day at IME, the Financial Times reported.
The Todds’ Christian faith has buoyed them as they’ve tried to piece together the details surrounding their son’s death.
“We feel we’ve been led by the hand of God with each step,” said Mary, a licensed Baptist pastor who leads a satellite church of the Paloma, Calif., First Baptist Church at the Todds’ airplane hanger at their home.
Rick is a pilot for American Airlines. He has been coming to Marion since his father bought a 160-acre ranch there when he was just a boy. The Todds spent their honeymoon at the Marion ranch and moved there full time two years ago.
From finding Shane’s hard drive to having connections to an American pathologist for consultation, many details, they said, “have been supernaturally given to us.”
Rick’s family was in the mortuary business and he worked for a time as a funeral director. That gave him insight has he studied his son’s body postmortem. He knows what suicide victims look like after death, and Shane’s body looked nothing like that.
“Shane looked beautiful, his face and eyes were clear,” he said, adding that his lungs were of normal weight, not as heavy as a suicide victim’s lungs would be.
The Singapore police maintained bruises on Shane’s hands were blood-pooling stains, but Rick believes his son’s hands were bruised as he fought off an attacker. The marks on his son’s neck also don’t coincide with a hanging, he added.
A coroner’s inquest into Shane’s death is expected to take place in March in Singapore, and the Todds will attend.
“Our fear is for our country,” Rick said. “We realize the type of stuff he was doing. We don’t want someone else’s child” to be in this situation.
The Todds continue to question the Singapore authorities’ investigation. They’ve offered to send a copy of the hard drive contents to the Singapore police in exchange for the contents of Shane’s two laptops that still are in police custody.
On Wednesday, though, the Singapore police issued a statement saying it was them who gave the Todds the hard drive. “That’s categorically a false statement,” Mary said.
WHAT’S LEFT in the wake of the tragedy is a family that is still grieving.
“We’re a very close family,” Mary said.
The Todds and their other three grown sons — John, Dylan and Chet — will attend a retreat next month aimed at helping them “walk through grief.” With the money Shane left, they’ve started a family business, Truman Investments, as a way of honoring him and staying connected.
Mary finds comfort in a dream she had during a pastors’ retreat last September. She saw Shane walking through the door; his face was “glorified,” she said.
“We kissed and hugged. I could even smell his breath. I believe God gave me a picture of him, and that’s a wonderful gift, whether it was a dream or a vision.”
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.
Murder in Singapore?
Bonzer bloke
Bonzer bloke
Pure passion drives Tetsuya Wakuda, one of Australia’s – and the world’s – most original and innovative chefs.
NEVER mind that he is the chef behind the eponymous Tetsuya’s in Sydney, that’s listed in S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants and has a permanent waiting list of four to six months.
Or that Waku Ghin, his only establishment outside Australia which opened in 2010 in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, to rave reviews, has been voted second in Asia’s Top 20 Restaurants by The Miele Guide 2013.
Japan-born Australian chef Tetsuya Wakuda comes across as a truly nice and sincere man.
And, I can’t seem to say that enough because for someone who has been hailed as Australia’s finest chef with an amazing long list of accolades under his white apron (I would say white chef’s hat but I noticed he never dons one), he has no qualms about spending a good hour fielding questions tirelessly from a bunch of Malaysian journalists and a food blogger.
And when he’s in the same room with you, it feels like he’s sharing a family recipe, not a finely tuned culinary dish which he has honed over the years.
Certainly, it’s not for the publicity as the 53-year-old Tetsuya already walks among the elite as he’s considered one of the most influential chefs in the world.
Maybe it’s because he chose to leave his comfort zone – his hometown Hamamatsu, a town on the main Japanese island of Honshu – at the young age of 22, with no skill or inkling of what he wanted to do in Australia, only that he found the country fascinating and wanted to learn English. Or that he was lucky enough to meet Sydney chef Tony Bilson while working as a kitchenhand at Fishwives in Surry Hills, and was asked to prepare sushi at Kinsela’s, one of Bilson’s restaurants.
One might say it’s kismet but that chance meeting led him to a lifelong passion whereby he would go on to learn classic French techniques that form the backbone of his cooking style till today.
Perhaps, it is this innate sense of gratefulness and little boy wonder in Tetsuya that helps him stay rooted, despite having achieved so much in his 30-year career.
When an aspiring cook enquired, during a joint masterclass between Tetsuya and French chef Daniel Boulud, how one becomes a famous chef, he answered that all one needs is true passion. This was at the recent three-day food and wine appreciation Epicurean Market held at the Convention Centre in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore,
“It’s a hard industry – when people are having fun, you are working. One has to be open to criticism as it helps you grow. You need to give it time and keep at it (cooking). Then, money and fame will come naturally … enjoy it (the process),” he advised.
Eye on the food
Back at Waku Ghin, in the intimate setting of his “kitchen”, Tetsuya rattles away about his cooking style, his favourite food and why he loves what he does.
It must be clarified that the aforementioned kitchen, is actually a private dining room where diners sit (or stand) around the chef’s table as he prepares culinary art before their eyes.
The restaurant’s dining concept is based on a multi-faceted use of space where diners move from room to room, to enjoy the bespoke experience of refined cuisine and unparalleled service. The 743sqm restaurant offers an intimate lounge where award-winning Japanese bartenders serve over 85 handcrafted cocktails, premium sake and whisky. Tetsuya is the first person appointed Sake Ambassador outside of Japan, making his selection the best in the world. And then, after dinner and drinks, guests relax over dessert and coffee in the drawing room, which offers a floor-to-ceiling view of the Singapore skyline.
Decadent is the word to describe the generous space, as it’s meant to accommodate only 25 people at the very most.
The name “Waku Ghin” is derived from two Japanese words: Waku means to “arise” (like water pouring forth from a hot spring) and Ghin means “silver”, Tetsuya’s favourite colour which runs throughout the restaurant.
It offers an exquisite 10-course degustation menu created from the best seasonal produce like Marinated Botan Shrimp with Sea Urchin and Caviar, and Wagyu with Wasabi and Citrus Soy.
Has Tetsuya ever been tempted to push the limits to accommodate his fans?
“No,” he answered without hesitation, as he is intent on preserving the integrity of the food, ambience and personal touch of the restaurant, so that even when it’s full house (which is practically every night) you don’t feel that other guests are intruding into your privacy. You don’t even get piped music as he’s that serious about diners not being distracted from his food!
In an age when everyone is spreading their reach, where bigger is better, Tetsuya seems bent on the opposite. His Singaporean outpost is even smaller than his Sydney restaurant, which is 4,180sqm and seats 120.
Sydney’s Tetsuya’s relocated to Kent Street in 2000 and is housed in a Japanese-designed terrace. Formerly, the restaurant was in the suburb of Rozelle which seated only 20 people.
Short of three years after opening in 1989, Tetsuya’s bagged its first title win in 1992, when it was awarded the coveted three chef’s hats by the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide. Since then, the accolades have kept piling up.
His food has been said to be “works of art for the eye and palate”, and fellow celebrity chef Charlie Trotter once described his food as “pure, clean flavours that are decisive, yet completely refined.”
Both restaurants may bear his signature but they are markedly different. The Sydney establishment serves classic French cuisine with an Asian influence, and makes use of Australian ingredients including the Tasmanian Ocean Trout, its signature dish; Waku Ghin, on the other hand, is mostly Japanese Asian with Western influences. He keeps a tight rein on his degustation menu whereby only the freshest ingredients are sourced. And in Singapore, that can be a challenge as the island lacks locally grown fresh produce and imports everything from overseas (or from Malaysia). I hear he doesn’t like the word “fusion” though and meals at his restaurant mimic Japanese kaiseki meals, with due emphasis on taste.
“I try to use what’s in season in Singapore. Because of its location, you get two seasons on a plate – the northern and southern hemisphere. For instance, in Europe, they are having winter food now but down south, it’s summer,” he explained.
So what’s his favourite season of the year?
“If I’m in Australia, I love summer as then you get fresh vegetables, fish and herbs. On the northern side, spring is when you get everything.”
He quipped about his favourite food being chicken rice and char kuey teow, and how he likes to eat them together. When a Malaysian journalist told him that those dishes were Malaysian in origin, he laughed and said he would love to try the full Malaysian gourmet experience one day.
Which begs the question, why did he opened Waku Ghin in Singapore?
“I never thought I would have a restaurant in Singapore but it has been one of my favourite destinations for years. I have many friends who have supported me in my dream to open a restaurant here. It’s a great place for a stopover when you’re travelling to Europe (from Down Under) and one of the few airports where you can step out and catch up for lunch with friends.”
It also helps that Singapore has less stringent import restrictions compared with Australia, which means Tetsuya can use ingredients from all over the world.
“I like Hong Kong too, but it’s a little harder as I don’t speak Chinese. In Singapore, everyone speaks English. It’s easy to get around, clean, safe and you get an amazing variety of restaurants,” he added.
Love for his craft
There’s no secret formula to how Tetsuya comes up with new concoctions or where he gets his inspiration from.
“I just love to eat and I love to cook. It’s my passion. If you’re a chef or a sommelier, you can live anywhere in the world. It’s a wonderful industry to be in,” he said.
The challenge for him is never in the cooking itself.
“I travel extensively for my work, to learn new techniques and ingredients, and participate in culinary events. And that’s tough. Learning English was also very hard when I first arrived in Australia.
“I run a restaurant. And it’s a challenge keeping an eye on the supply and making sure it runs properly. I find this tougher than actual cooking,” he said.
Generally, the humble chef prefers to keep a low profile and shuns the limelight. But during the second season of Junior MasterChef Australia, Tetsuya agreed to be one of the judges for the final week and came away duly impressed.
“I’m not keen on appearing on TV but the children were amazing. I could not do what they did at their age.”
Few things in the world excite Tetsuya like an induction stove as “I love the precise heating” and when during the rare times that he cooks in his own home, happiness is Italian food in the form of a simple plate of spaghetti laced with chilli and garlic. And yes, make that bird’s eye chilli!
When asked what makes a good restaurant, Tetsuya said point blank, “People.”
“Without people, we are nothing. As chefs, we need to interact and serve people. When you go to a restaurant and the food is good but service bad, you won’t go back. But if service is great even though the food isn’t that good, you would go back.”
He’s also an awesome boss, said Waku Ghin chef Sia Kok Hong (from Malaysia) who has been working there since it first opened. Sia attested to Tetsuya being always calm even in the most trying situations, and he’s never heard him utter a harsh word.
It’s true what they say – the great ones possess true humility.
Bonzer bloke
Should you exercise less?
While lack of exercise is a big problem for most people, there are times when my team and I have to make the decision to “dial down” the amount of exercise a person should be doing for various reasons. While this might sound a bit “weird” coming from a person who believes in the multiple benefits of physical activity, here are some situations where cutting down on exercise can give you more benefits in the bigger picture.
1. When you are under a heavy stress burden
High levels of chronic stress are quite a problem in Singapore. Sometimes we see a client who is under a high stress load for a period of time e.g. lots of international travel, high exposure to pollutants/toxins, family/emotional/relational crisis, chronic illness, or a combination of factors like these.
In this case we actually want to cut down on the amount of training he or she is given.
Exercise is an additional stress on the body. Even though it is usually a good stress or “eustress” as the Greeks put it, under this condition, that may be too much and hinder recovery and progress. In fact excess stress increases fat storage especially on the stomach area.
This does not mean lower the weights, or the difficulty. Rather, we usually cut down on the total “volume” of training, that means short sessions of maybe 30 mins. instead of 60 mins.
2. When you are recovering from injury
Sadly, many people use injury or pain as a reason to stop training altogether.
Stop doing this.
For example if a soccer player strains a knee, naturally he should not be jumping and sprinting on that knee, and he should see a rehab specialist to help get the knee sorted out quickly.
Meanwhile… he has many other joints to move and train.
He should train the opposite leg because there is a well studied mind-body connection that will reduce the function loss of the injured limb if you train the opposite one.
Also, he must continue training every other joint. Strength training has a “whole body” effect on your hormones, and the hormones that help recovery from training are the same ones which aid recovery from injury.
Both these factors speed up overall recovery time.
3. When you are recovering from illness
Illness is similar to point 1 about stress. It is an additional load on the body. Once you are well enough (no high fever, no dizziness etc), get back to light activity ASAP. This is because, once again, the overall body response to exercise is immune system boosting aiding recovery from your illness. It also has a positive psychological effect which can help counteract the negative emotions usually linked to physical illness.
However, as with point 1, keep the sessions short at first. Long, moderately intense sessions (more than 90 mins) have a negative effect on immunity as seen in this study. I would keep sessions to 30 mins of strength training, with slightly longer than usual breaks during the session.
In conclusion, remember the latin phrase (and use it to impress your friends) – “Vis medicatrix naturae” – this means to support the fundamentals of health, and promote/stimulate the natural, self-healing process. Following the ideas given above, you will be able to do this!
Coach Jonathan Wong is a respected health professional. He is also the Founder and CEO of Genesis Gym Singapore, which aims to provide thebest personal training andfitness services in Singapore.
Should you exercise less?