IT can't be easy being Mrs Chen Xiang Li.

Just a day after the hairdresser was attacked by her estranged husband at home, she had to turn up at the mortuary to prepare to lay him to rest.

Mr Chen Xiang Li, 41, leapt to his death from their 17-storey Eunos Crescent flat after Mrs Chen and their 7-year-old daughter escaped from his clutches on Tuesday morning. He had earlier attacked their maid with a hammer.

Just how does one grieve for someone you once loved enough to marry but has since turned into a threat to your safety?

Mrs Chen appeared calm and stoic when she showed up at the mortuary early yesterday.

The well-dressed woman in her 30s unobtrusively joined the crowd waiting to identify the bodies of their loved ones.

She sat silently, inscrutable behind a pair of oversized sunglasses. And if she shed tears for Mr Chen, it was not obvious behind those sunglasses.

She also kept mum as reporters approached her later, wanting to find out more about the couple's estranged relationship and the reason for her husband's rampage.

But she had the presence of mind to inform Mr Chen's pastor of his death, though she did not attend the church herself.

HUSBAND'S PHOTOGRAPH

After leaving the mortuary, Mrs Chen was seen at the foot of her block.

Outside the flat, a man who identified himself as Mr Chen's pastor, said in Mandarin that he had accompanied her to the mortuary.

He said Mrs Chen was supposed to retrieve a photograph of her husband for the funeral arrangements. But she was not seen entering the flat.

She then returned to the mortuary before visiting the injured Indonesian maid, Ms Susanti, at Changi General Hospital around 1.30pm.

The maid, who is in her 20s, is in stable condition in the surgical intensive care unit.

Hospital staff said she did not want to speak to anyone except her employer.

The pastor said Mr Chen had joined his congregation recently, but had not been seen for the last couple of weeks.

He added that he knew the couple were having problems, but he 'did not ask too much about it'.

The couple, born in China, had become Singapore citizens.

The Chens' next-door neighbour, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lim, said Mrs Chen had told her about taking out a personal protection order against her husband.

Madam Lim said in Mandarin: 'She told me her husband was often drunk and had hurled vulgarities at her. She also said her husband once tried to strangle her.'

Madam Lim said Mr Chen, a gas cylinder deliveryman, moved out of the flat last November.

'He told me that if he could not be with his wife and child, he would want to 'die with them',' she said, recounting a conversation with him a few days ago.

SUICIDE NOTE?

Mr Chen's colleague, who wanted to be known only as Mr Zhao, said the police had searched Mr Chen's lorry.

They had found a hastily scribbled note wedged behind the sunshade.

In it, Mr Chen had written in Mandarin: 'If anything happens to me, call these numbers.'

The telephone numbers included those of his estranged wife and his elder sister.

Was the slip of paper a suicide note or just a list of numbers to call in case of an emergency?

Mr Zhao, who is in his 40s, said in Mandarin yesterday: 'I glanced at the note, but I don't know when he wrote it.

'The handwriting was very untidy.

'I saw him over the weekend at work. He didn't say much to me, but he seemed down.

'I heard my other colleagues saying one of his sisters had a heart attack when she found out about his death.'

He said another colleague had previously mentioned lending MrChen money for his 'gambling problems'.

But he said he did not know about Mr Chen's family problems as 'he would never tell me such things'.

He described Mr Chen as a hard worker who had never quarrelled with his colleagues in his six years of work.

The Chens' tenants, who were preparing to move out of the flat, said they had not spoken to MrsChen since the incident.

NOT KNOWN TO TENANTS

They said they did not know their landlords personally and had found the room through an advertisement.

Madam Lim had described what happened, as told to her by MrsChen, to The New Paper.

Around 5am on Tuesday, Mr Chen cut the padlock securing the metal gate and went in through the unlocked front door.

His sudden appearance startled Ms Susanti, who was asleep in the living room.

Mr Chen hit her head with a hammer and tied her up.

Dragging her with him, he went into the master bedroom where his wife and daughter were sleeping.

He tried to tie the pair up, but they managed to escape and ran to a nearby 7-Eleven store.

He barricaded himself in the master bedroom with the maid, pushing the bed against the door.

By then, the Chens' tenant, Mr Li Wen Quan, 28, a designer, had called the police.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force were also at the scene when Mr Chen fell.

He died in hospital at 7.45am.