IN RECENT days, parts of this law-and-order city, whose murder rate ranks as low as Japan’s, resembled scenes from the American TV series Crime Scene Investigation.

Against its staid nature, seven gruesome bodies have been found in various parts of the island since July 1, unrelated to each other – at a rate of one a day.

In fact, the grisly spate had begun earlier, from around mid-April when a decomposed body was found in a luggage bag at the casino resort of Sentosa.