SINGAPORE — Two varying accounts of an American researcher who died in an apparent suicide about a year ago emerged during the first day of a high-profile Coroner’s Inquiry into his unnatural death that has attracted international media attention.

While Dr Shane Todd’s friends yesterday testified that he was facing pressure from work, with some knowing that the former research scientist with the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) was depressed, they did not feel that he was suicidal.

Police investigations, presented by the Attorney-General’s Chambers yesterday, revealed otherwise.

Todd, 31, had visited suicide-related websites on 19 different occasions between March 10 and June 23 last year, Senior State Counsel Tai Wei Shyong said in his opening statement.

Addressing a packed courtroom, filled mainly with reporters from local and international media, Mr Tai said Todd accessed these websites dealing with suicide and depression mostly in May last year.

The last suicide-related webpage accessed was on June 23, 2012, the day before Todd was found hanged in his apartment on the second floor of a three-storey conserved shophouse at Spottiswoode Park Road.

Three police officers who were first responders to the scene told the inquiry that there were no tempering marks on the door to the apartment, no signs that it had been ransacked, nor any indications of a struggle. All of Todd’s belongings and valuables were also intact.

Mr Tai, in his opening statement, had said the investigation officers who responded to the scene had found a suicide note on Todd’s laptop. In the note, Todd blamed himself for his “condition”, and felt he was “just a burden” to those around him.

Several days after his body was found, Todd’s mother also handed over some tablets and the name card of psychiatrist Dr Nelson Lee, which she had found in the apartment, to the police.

Analysis by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) found that the tablets contained the anti-depressant Citalopram, although the HSA’s toxicology report showed that no foreign compounds, including Citalopram, had been found in Todd’s blood and urine.

Todd’s parents, who are attending the inquiry, believe that he was murdered over research he had done while working for IME and have raised doubts about the way police investigations were carried out.

Among other things, lawyer Foo Cheow Ming yesterday asked the three police officers who testified why they had proceeded to cut the strap above the noose from which Todd’s body was hanging, despite the visible pooling of blood in his extremities and his body being cold. The lawyer also questioned why the officers had placed Todd’s body down on the floor, shifting a chair in the process.

The officers said they were following police procedures in dealing with victims who are found hanging, so that paramedics have access to the body. On Mr Foo’s question on why no dusting for fingerprints was conducted at the scene, the officers reiterated there was no evidence of foul play.

At the inquiry, which will last till the end of the month, the Todd family can question investigation findings, and forensic and medical reports. They will also have the opportunity to raise concerns relating to the case.

After that, State Coroner Chay Yuen Fatt will review the evidence and independently determine the cause of Todd’s death. Some 60 witnesses are expected to take the stand.