SINGAPORE — The Todd family will not continue to participate in the coroner’s inquiry into the death of their son, American researcher Shane Todd, and have discharged the five lawyers representing them, the court heard today (May 22). However, the inquiry scheduled to end next Tuesday will go on. Todd, a researcher at the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), was found hanging in his apartment on June 24 last year in what was an apparent suicide. His parents believe he was killed over his research work at IME. The Todds, who were not in court today, will also not be giving their statements in court but their conditioned statements will still be read out. In a statement to the press this morning, the Todd family said: “After careful consideration, the Todd family feels we must withdraw our participation from the Inquiry proceedings in the Singapore court system. “We had been told that the Coroner Inquiry is not adversarial, rather it is a fact finding mission with the soul purpose of getting to the truth. “This has not been our experience. We no longer have confidence in the transparency and the fairness of the system. It appears to us that the outcome has been predetermined.” They added: “We were looking forward to an honest and transparent court proceeding. Sadly, this has not been the case. Therefore, we have decided that our presence in Singapore will have no bearing on the outcome of this case. “We believe we’ve given the judge ample evidence to make a fair judgment, and therefore our presence here is no longer need. The Todd family will now turn to the court of public opinion with all the concrete evidence that our son was murdered. “We would personally like to thank our legal team for tremendous and tireless efforts in the proceedings. We are deeply grateful.” A representative from the United States embassy told reporters that the Todds met with ambassador David Adelman at 5pm yesterday and he expressed his condolences and heard what they had to say. According to their lawyers, the Todds will also be flying back to the US this week. Earlier yesterday, the Todds walked out of the courtroom after a request for the court to stand down for a day, to give them more time to examine evidence from a state counsel’s witness, was turned down by the State Coroner. Their request was turned down because the witness, Mr Luis Montes, a man claiming to be Shane Todd’s friend and the last person to see him alive, was due to return to France that evening. Mr Montes arrived in Singapore only on Monday and his statement was given to the Todd’s family yesterday morning. Speaking to reporters outside the Subordinate Courts yesterday, after storming out of the courtroom, the Todds said that neither they nor Todd’s girlfriend, Ms Shirley Sarmiento, recognised Mr Montes. “The point is we’re getting sprung stuff at the last minute that we cannot, don’t have time to corroborate,” Mr Rick Todd said.