Update: The Straits Times have reported that an autopsy has confirmed the cause of death to be a heart attack.
BY THEIR own admission, mum and teenage son had accompanied dad on a night out clubbing - with Ecstasy on their minds.
Now, they are left in anguish over the death of lorry driver Luo Li Fu, 37, and the mystery of how he died.
The Singaporean man died in a Johor Baru nightclub on Saturday night.
Was it a robbery gone wrong?
Did he collapse from a heart attack?
Or was it something more sinister?
His wife and elder son believe Mr Luo was murdered over a drug dispute which took place during an earlier visit about a month ago.
This time round, the 17-year-old son, Luo Wei Xiong, accompanied his parents to Ye Lai Xiang nightclub in Johor Baru on Saturday night.
His girlfriend, Felicial Ding, 19, was with them. The private student from Wuhan, China, lives with the Luos in their Bedok flat.
After dinner, the group decided to visit the nightclub to drink and dance.
It was Wei Xiong's second time there.
He told The New Paper in a mix of Mandarin and English: "I had accompanied my parents there in January."
He recalled his mother, Mrs Luo Li Yun, a housewife, asking a waitress for some pills that Saturday night.
The waitress then checked with a man in a red shirt.
According to Wei Xiong, the man looked to be in his 40s and had some white hair.
He was the one who supplied the group with four blue tablets, which he told them were Ecstasy pills.
"My father paid about 100 ringgit (S$40). The man kept staring as my father took out the money and checked the note with a torchlight," Wei Xiang said.
He added that it was the first time he had taken the drug.
But he claimed he did not notice any reaction and continued dancing and drinking.
His father left the group soon after, saying he wanted to listen to music.
"My girlfriend was the last person to see my father. He was on his own at an area near the speakers," he said.
Almost 30 minutes later, he realised his father had disappeared.
Looking past the glass tables and crowd, he saw someone lying on the floor.
He rushed over and realised it was his father.
His mother cried as she tried to wake her unconscious husband.
Bloody gash
"There was a bloody gash above his left eyebrow. Blood was also flowing from his nose and his mouth," Wei Xiong said.
He shouted for help and tried unsuccessfully to revive his father.
Upset that someone had attacked his father, he smashed a glass and yelled at the crowd: "Who hit him? Why did you attack him like this?"
The man in the red shirt then punched his neck, Wei Xiong claimed.
He could not retaliate as there were too many people around him, and "it was chaotic".
The ambulance arrived about 20 minutes later, and paramedics tried in vain to revive Mr Luo.
"By then, it was already too late," Wei Xiong said.
When TNP visited the Bedok flat last night, his mother was still in Johor Baru.
"I don't know when she'll be back with my father's body," he said.
He had called a friend for help and returned to Singapore at about 2am yesterday.
He was not stopped at the immigration checkpoint.
Wei Xiong stressed that his father had been in good health. Mr Luo did not suffer from high blood pressure and it was unlikely he could have succumbed to a heart attack.
Malaysian police did not reply to TNP's queries by press time last night.
Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday that the couple had offended some drug dealers in the same nightclub a month ago.
Mrs Luo, 33, told the evening daily that two mobile phones worth $800 and some cash were missing after she left her handbag with a drug dealer while she went dancing.
She questioned the man, but he denied the theft.
She stole a packet containing 20 pills from the man and flushed it down the toilet to get back at him, she told the newspaper.
Things became tense after that.
Mrs Luo told Lianhe Wanbao: "We wanted to leave the place around 6am, but were surrounded by a few people who asked if we had taken their things.
"They even demanded that we take off our shoes to let them check."
Besides Wei Xiong, an N-level student who is currently looking for work, the couple have another son and two daughters, aged 9, 8 and 6.
Former neighbour and friend Chua Xiao Long, 36, said Mr Luo met Ipoh-born Mrs Luo at a KTV lounge when she was 15.
She gave birth to Wei Xiong a year later.
Mr Luo was 20 then.
When asked what he intends to do next, Wei Xiong seemed lost.
"I don't believe that my father passed away like that. When his body returns to Singapore, I hope another autopsy can be done here to confirm the cause of death."
He was also concerned about "getting into trouble" over newspaper reports that the family admitted having taken drugs.
Lawyer Tan Hee Joek said Singapore's drug laws cover extraterritorial drug consumption.
"So if someone had taken drugs overseas, he or she can still be charged if the urine test here turns up positive.
"This applies to all Singaporeans and permanent residents."
'He told me he was going (to JB) for fun'
MR LUO Li Fu, the lorry driver who died in a Johor Baru nightclub, had stopped taking drugs to focus on his business.
Family friend Chua Xiao Long, 36, who has known Mr Luo for more than 20 years, said the latter used to run an aquarium business in Bedok. After eight years, Mr Luo opened a toy shop in Tampines.
But that folded after two years.
In January 2009, Mr Luo became a lorry driver for a construction company.
He was the sole breadwinner who supported his retired father, wife and four children.
Mr Chua, who has his own import-export business, said he last met Mr Luo on Saturday, before the latter left for Johor Baru.
He had been chatting with Mr Luo, his wife and son at their void deck around 9.30pm that fateful night.
"We were good friends and good brothers. Having worked in similar industries, there was nothing we wouldn't talk about. In fact, were on the phone daily," he said in Mandarin.
"I asked why he was going to JB since he had to work the next day. He told me he was going for fun."
So when Mrs Luo called around 2pm on Sunday to tell him about her husband's death, Mr Chua scolded her: "I thought she was playing a bad joke on me."
Mr Luo had stopped patronising nightclubs and taking drugs over the decade he was running a business to "focus on his business concerns".
"It's only recently that he started going back (to JB) when he had more time on his hands," Mr Chua added.
Mr Luo, the youngest son among six children, had stopped school after his primary education to help at his father's fruit stall.
He had a younger sister who committed suicide about five years ago.
"Her boyfriend died in an accident and she couldn't get over it," Mr Chua said.
