News

Woman Believed to Fall from 10th Floor of Marine Parade Condo Due to Sleepwalking

2022-05-13 , 12:54 pm

A 38-year-old woman who fell to her death on 7 June 2021 is believed to have climbed through a window in her apartment while sleepwalking.

According to CNA, Ms Ruth Dalumpines Dulfo was found lying motionless at the foot of her block at Laguna Park condominium located in Marine Parade at about 7:00am.

The Philippine national had a history of sleepwalking and lived in her apartment located on the 10th storey with five other housemates. She’s known to have sleepwalked in four known instances.

What Happened

According to Dulfo’s housemates, the night before her death on 6 June 2021, Ms Dulfo was at a gathering in the apartment where she took some alcohol.

Dulfo was sober and could a conversation. Toxicology reports also revealed that there was a high but non-lethal amount of alcohol in Dulfo’s blood after her death.

The gathering continued until the early hours of the morning but no one could confirm if Dulfo actually went to sleep that night as all the housemates went to sleep before her.

Later in the morning at 7:05 am, the police had received an information report that Ms Dulfo had fallen from a height.

Details About the Fall

It was found that the window located in the toilet of the apartment was found open.

The toilet windows were usually closed, said Mr Dulfo’s housemate to the police.

Police found that the location of the toilet window lined up to where Ms Dulfo’s body was found and it was open to a large extent.

Ms Dulfo’s DNA was also found on the toilet window, where swabs were taken from the window lever that had to be pushed to open the window, as well as the bottom of the window.

However, the police noted that there were no camera footage or witnesses to confirm surely that this was the way Dulfo fell from the building.

Sleepwalking History Prior Fatal Fall

Investigation also revealed that Dulfo’s sister had cited three times when Dulfo sleepwalked while she was in the Philippines.

Two incidents involved Dulfo walking and trying to urinate, or gesturing that she wanted to urinate.

The third was Dulfo walking out of her bedroom with her eyes closed and going down the stairs. In this incident, Dulfo could not be woken up so she was turned back to the bedroom where she returned to bed.

Witness Testimonies For Dulfo’s Death

Three witnesses testified on the first day of a coroner’s inquiry into Ms Dulfo’s death.

They were a police inspector, one of Dulfo’s housemates, and a neurologist specialising in sleep medicine.

The investigating officer Gilbert chow said that the police are of the view that Dulfo inadvertently fell out of the window while sleepwalking and no foul play is suspected.

One of Dulfo’s housemates also recounted an instance when Dulfo might be sleepwalking within the apartment. The housemate saw her emerging from a storage area within the apartment in the morning instead of her bedroom.

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The housemate told the court that he had asked Dulfo how she got there and if she ended up sleeping there. The housemate said that Dulfo looked like she just woke up.

But Dulfo replied she did not know, and the pair laughed off the incident together.

Meanwhile, the neurologist Dr Pavanni Ratnagopal had also concluded in her expert report Dulfo was sleepwalking during the incident.

This was because Ms Dulfo had a history of being able to carry out complicated actions while she was sleepwalking like taking the stairs and trying to urinate.

When asked if a sleepwalking individual could climb through a toilet window in Dulfo’s apartment, Dr Ratnagopal said yes.

Dr Ratnagopal said that climbing out of windows and driving cars are among the complex actions sleepwalkers are known to perform.

When asked what a complex action is, Dr Ratnagopal defined it as a sequence of steps required to perform an action.

Further Investigation

Dulfo was known to be a jovial person. No suicide note or explanation for her death was found in her diary that was seized by the police.

However, Ms Dulfo’s manager said that some time prior to her death she had asked for her entire month’s salary to be remitted to her family in the Philippines.

This was unusual as usually Dulfo would only send a portion of her income to her family, according to the manager.

Ms Dulfo also texted at 2:50am on the night of her death to her mother asking if she was okay.

The judge has also since asked the police to make continued attempts to decrypt Ms Dulfo’s phone and tablet in order to rule out other possibilities of how she may have died.