‘Mummy, will you come back for my birthday?’: Daughter’s last unanswered message to nurse killed in helicopter crash

Siblings Euodia Then Suling, 15, (right) and Eugene Then Kuling, 12, hold on to each other as they remember their late mother, Debra Moset, who was killed in the helicopter crash on Sept 8, 2026.

By Shikin Louis

KUCHING, Sept 13: “Mummy, will you come back if I celebrate my birthday next month?”

That was the last message 15-year-old Euodia Then Suling sent to her mother, Debra Moset, shortly before the nurse was killed in a helicopter crash.

Euodia said she sent the message at about 2.29pm on Sept 8, but it remained unanswered.

She then sent another message at 3.27pm — just a minute after she was told the helicopter had crashed.

“I asked her if she would come back when I celebrate my birthday because my birthday is next month,” Euodia recalled when met for an interview at her residence in Kampung Semadang, Puncak Borneo here today.

She said the message had not even been read when the tragedy occurred.

“I was crying because I was sad. I couldn’t believe my mother was gone. I thought she was still alive because people said she had managed to jump,” she said.

Today, Euodia’s unanswered question became even more painful as her mother’s remains were flown from Miri to Kuching and brought home to Kampung Semadang, Puncak Borneo, at about 12.40pm.

Debra’s remains will be laid to rest tomorrow at the St Patrick Anglican Church Cemetery in Kampung Semadang.

The incident occurred on Sept 8 when a BO-105 helicopter carrying five people crashed near the Long Lellang Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) airport in Marudi.

The remains of all five victims were identified on Sept 9 through DNA analysis as pilot Captain Zainol Afiq Bee Sham, 30; medical officer Dr Ainul Baraah Kamaruddin, 33; medical assistant Alexson Adit Henry, 31; and staff nurses Debra Moset, 40, and Jessie Paya Jok, 44. — DayakDaily