Singaporean killed in Dukono eruption ‘didn’t go for social media’: family

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Timothy Heng’s stepsister said that she and her family were comforted to know that ‘his final moments were used to help someone else’

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CNAPublished: 10:01am, 11 May 2026Updated: 10:11am, 11 May 2026

Speaking about her stepbrother Timothy Heng, Tessa Oh said that his family knew him to be someone who put others before himself and showed up for the people in his life.

Early on, hearing that he was still on Indonesia’s Mount Dukono after it erupted while most of his fellow hikers had been evacuated, “my first thought was that he must have [run] back and tried to help someone”, the 30-year-old journalist said.

More details about his last movements that emerged in a media report and accounts from some of the other hikers confirmed this, and Oh said that she and her family were comforted to know that “his final moments were used to help someone else”.

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“I think it really made them feel a lot more heartened about his death, and they feel like they raised a good boy, they raised a good son,” she said about her parents.

Heng, 29, was one of the two Singaporean hikers found dead on Sunday, following the eruption of Mount Dukono, a volcano on the island of Halmahera.

A group of 20 hikers, including Heng, was trapped on Mount Dukono when it erupted on Friday, launching an ash cloud about 10km into the air.

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