This was the conclusion of Singapore state coroner Marvin Bay in an unusual case, Channel NewsAsia reported today.

The coroner said Jovylyn La Torre Rue, a mother of five, killed herself by accident while staging her own hanging in an attempt to play a prank on her boyfriend.

Rue was found dead in her bedroom by her employer on Dec 11, 2016, 10 days before she was due to attend her daughter’s wedding in the Philippines, the portal said.

Rue had apparently played the same trick on her boyfriend before, threatening to commit suicide until the man broke down and cried.

The maid had told her friend that she just wanted to “scare” and “toy with” the man to “test the extent of his love”.

She claimed she knew “a safe way” to stage her hanging – by positioning the rope at a low level, the inquiry was told. However, this time, her tactic to scare her lover failed.

Two of Rue’s friends told investigators that she was “two-timing” her boyfriend.

On the day of her death, a Sunday and the maid’s day off, she met one of her boyfriends and spent time with him at a hotel.

A few hours later, she left, telling her boyfriend she had a birthday party to attend. But instead, she went to meet her second boyfriend and spent time with him in another hotel.

The first boyfriend called her and they got into an argument. Rue threatened suicide again and the man, who was in tears, called her friends to ask them to stop her.

The coroner said Rue had probably suffocated after winding the rope around her neck and there was nobody at home to help her.