FOR 23 days, the family clung to hope. Hope that their missing son was fine and alive somewhere in Singapore.

In that time, they prayed and went around the island distributing pamphlets in the hope that someone may have seen the young man.

As each day passed, their search became more desperate, but they still refused to give up hope.

But the Jasuwito family's hopes were dashed on Tuesday when they finally learnt that Mr Aries Jasuwito, 25, was dead.

Perhaps even more shocking was that the Chinese Indonesian had been dead for the 23 days that his family was racked with anguish, doubt and fear over his fate.

He was found lying motionless at the foot of Block 224, Simei Street 4, at about 1.10pm on 26 Oct, the day he went missing. Mr Aries, who had no identification papers on him, died soon after in hospital.

His father, who wanted to be known only as Mr Jasuwito , said last night that he had not slept or eaten properly in three weeks.

The 59-year-old said in Bahasa Indonesia through a translator: "I would lie awake in bed and ask a lot of questions.

Maybe he is here, or there. But through it all, I still thought he was alive.

"He was a happy and normal young boy. He had no problems.

"We hope whoever is responsible for his death will get what he or she deserves."

At about 11am on 26 Oct, Mr Aries had wandered away from his mother, Mrs Linda Jasuwito, 60, at Raffles City Shopping Centre.

When there was no sign of him that night, the family reported him missing to the police.

The family from Bali, Indonesia, was on holiday in Singapore, where Mr Aries' elder sister, Ms Erna Jasuwito, 28, works as a customer relations officer.

It is not known why it took so long to identify Mr Aries' body, especially when his family had reported him missing.

Happy at first

But in those three weeks, Ms Erna and family friends distributed pamphlets at all the hospitals and far-flung places

like East Coast and Changi Village.

Ms Erna said: "We had hope all the way. We really thought he just went missing or was injured. We still cannot quite process what has happened.

"We even distributed pamphlets at the Singapore General Hospital, where his body was lying for so long.

"I got the call from the police on Tuesday to ask me to look at a picture to see if it was my brother. I was happy. I thought he was alive."

His father, who had returned to Bali earlier, came back on Tuesday on hearing the bad news.

He is puzzled at the chain of events.

"Singapore is similar to Bali in the sense that they both rely on tourists. If the place is safe and efficient, they will come. But if something like this happens here, they will be turned off. They won't come.

"Mr friends back home kept asking, "How can this happen in a country as safe as Singapore?""

Mrs Jasuwito was too distraught to talk.

For the family, many questions remain unanswered.

For one, why and how did Mr Aries end up in Simei not long after after he was seen alive with his mother in City Hall.

Was he robbed? His sister and father said his watch and wallet were missing.

Said Ms Erna: "I just bought him the watch which cost $300."

She said that her brother had a few friends in Singapore. The family owns a cotton textile business in Bali.

Another nagging question: Why did it take 23 days to identify the body?

One former police officer told The New Paper that certain lapses could have occurred during the investigation process.

When a missing person report is lodged, the police officer will first take down information on the missing person such as his physical description, his medical record, when he was last seen and a photograph of the person.

This information is recorded in an internal police database on missing persons, which police officers in other divisions and stations have access to.

But this second step is not always taken, the former officer who spent more than seven years in the force said.

Sometimes, police officers may not input information on a particular case.

"It really boils down to the individual officer responsible for the case," he said.

"The officer may be busy or he may be in a hurry, he may be changing shift, or just not as diligent."

As there are no checks to ensure that all missing persons reports are fed into the database, some cases are never recorded in the database.

Are alerts sent out to hospitals when a report is lodged?

The hospitals are alerted when the missing person is a dementia patient, said the former officer.

The former officer said the effort taken to find a missing person also depends on who it is.

"If it's a teenage runaway, a student who ran away from home, then it won"t receive a lot of attention because the expectation is that these teenagers will be arrested for glue-sniffing or shop-lifting (eventually)," he said.

Dementia patients who wander away from home usually end up in hospitals.

"They're normally taken there after suffering a fall or something like that," he said.

Despite his family's anger and confusion over the mysterious tragedy, Mr Jasuwito wants to thank the police officer who helped to identify his son.

"Yes, it took some time, but at least we found him and can lay him to rest properly. Now, we just hope he will go in peace and we can move on," he said.