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Nineteen-year-old Jackson Chua Eng Seng, a third-year student at Temasek Polytechnic, was known as a responsible son, caring brother, and diligent student.
On 28 February 1999, he left home after lunch, mentioning he’d be trying out a new bus route.
His family would never see him again.
Despite a massive search involving more than 100 people, including family and friends, no trace of Jackson was found.
Years later, strange and unexplained occurrences would trouble his family, giving rise to many theories that were never proven. Here’s what we do know so far.
On the afternoon of 28 February, Jackson left his Sengkang flat for Temasek Polytechnic after having lunch with his family.
During the meal, he mentioned that he’d try out a new bus route to school.
Little did Jackson’s family know that it would be the last time they’d see him, for the teenager never returned for dinner as promised.
He was due to take some tests that week, but the school confirmed he never showed up.
The Chua family filed a police report the next day and began a large-scale search for the missing teen.
More than 100 people, including Jackson’s family and friends, were involved, said a 1999 article in The New Paper.
Mr Chua Seow Min, Jackson’s father, distributed his pictures to his taxi driver friends. They also put up posters at bus stops and MRT stations near their home and in Orchard.
Despite the family’s extensive efforts, they found no clues.
Source: The New Paper via National Library Board
Theories of him running away were discounted. Jackson reportedly had a close relationship with his family, and a counsellor at Temasek Polytechnic said he was well-behaved, always handed in assignments on time, and was sociable with good friends.
He had not taken his passport or any belongings with him, and his POSB bank account was untouched, another article published in May 1999 said.
“There’s no reason for him disappearing like that,” his father said in an article by The New Paper, ruling out a possible kidnapping as no ransom call had been received.
As Jackson often browsed the Internet Relay Chat, there are speculations that he might have met someone online. “But that doesn’t explain why he wouldn’t go home,” one of his friends commented.
Source: The New Paper via National Library Board
Though the search efforts did not bring in results, one development did leave the Chua family with many questions.
According to a 2005 Mediacorp documentary reenacting the case, which claims to “maintain the accuracy of all the events”, the Chua family would occasionally receive mysterious phone calls even years after Jackson’s disappearance.
The calls would reportedly always come in sets of three, with the caller remaining silent on the line. However, they would also always hold the line and wait for the Chuas to hang up first.
According to the reenactment, the family tracked one of these calls to a man in Toa Payoh, but he did not remember meeting or lending his phone to anyone who matched Jackson’s description.
Still, the Chua family held on to hope that these calls could mean Jackson was alive.
Source: The New Paper via National Library Board
In 2002, a neighbour who recently moved in claimed to have seen a young man resembling Jackson standing outside the Chua family’s flat at around 2am, lingering for 20 minutes before leaving.
When shown a photo of Jackson, the neighbour reportedly identified the man as him.
However, Jackson’s uncle expressed doubt, saying that if it was indeed Jackson, there was no reason for him not to knock on the door. The man never returned, leaving the family with no further clues.
To this day, Jackson Chua’s disappearance remains unsolved, with the strange occurrences surrounding the case adding layers of mystery that continue to haunt his family and friends.
Also read: The case of Felicia Teo: Missing student whose fate was only revealed after 13 years
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Featured image adapted from The New Paper via National Library Board
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