Annapuranee’s son to appeal court decision, determined to find out what happened to her

THE SON of Australian grandmother Annapuranee Jenkins, whose partial remains were found scattered n Penang some four years ago, has vowed to continue seeking justice for her after yet another setback in the Malaysian courts over a case that has moved into its eighth year.

Steven Greg Jenkins said that he will consult his Malaysian lawyers with a mind to appeal the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court, which ruled on technicalities that a negligence suit filed by him against a developer and site project manager was unjustifiable.

The developer Berjaya Land Development Sdn Bhd was planning a project around the site where Annapuranee’s remains were found.

The suit against manager Terrence Theseira and contractor Kew Kee Seng was also dismissed.

Theseira had testified during an earlier inquest on the death of Annapuranee in Penang that he had ordered for the remains to be reburied upon the discovery at a construction site near the Penang Turf Club here, as it is a normal practice during construction site work.

Jenkins recalled being horrified by the testimony as usually the authorities need to be called in first if human remains are found.

"The reburial element raises suspicions of a conspiracy to impair the investigations on what happened to my mother Anna in the first place," Jenkins said in an interview.

While he respects the court's decision, Jenkins feels that it is his right to appeal the matter and to continue fighting to determine what exactly had happened to his mother.

Jenkins filed the suit last year, through his counsel Sankara Nair, where the plaintiff named the federal government, the police, Berjaya Land, its project manager Terrence Theseira and landscape worker Kew Kee Seng as defendants.

On February 26, Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain ruled on technical grounds that Jenkins did not have a legal right to file the lawsuit without obtaining permission from his late mother's estate first.

Roz elaborated that Jenkins, despite being the deceased’s biological son, was unable to show that he was its duly appointed legal representative.

Theseira was alleged to have instructed Kew to rebury the remains but later he also told Kew to lodge a police report after the remains were believed to have been tampered with.

Roz also ruled that those facts were insufficient to establish a cause of action in negligence against Berjaya Land and Theseira while Kew was not deemed to be an employee of the construction giant.

She said the Jenkins should be grateful to Theseira for convincing Kew to report the discovery of the remains to the police.

She ordered Jenkins to pay them RM20,000 in costs to the defendants and set aside March 8 for case management concerning the other respondents.

Parit Buntar-born Annapuranee went missing in 2017 after she alighted from a then ride sharing Uber service along the busy Scotland Road in Penang.

She apparently told the driver to stop her midway into a journey from a dental clinic in Pulau Tikus to the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Infirm in Batu Lanchang where her now deceased mother was.

She was visiting Penang alongside her husband Frank Jenkins, a retired Royal Australian Air Force personnel who has since passed away.

Annapuranee had relocated with Frank from Penang to Adelaide, which was their home for several years before she went missing in 2017.

The couple have two children, Greg and elder sister Jennifer, as well as two grandchildren.

Her remains were uncovered in 2020, during the height of the Covid - 19 pandemic.

Greg, who has been coming back to Penang regularly to first search for his mother and then to determine what caused her to disappear until her remains were found four years later, said that he will be persistent on this matter.

"We only have 34 bones and fragments of mum. Why won’t they search for more?" he said.

The case has received a considerable level of media attention in both Malaysia and Australia. Greg has also sought help from Australian politicians such as the Adelaide-based lawmaker Frank Pangello and foreign minister Penny Wong, who is incidentally born in Malaysia. – The Vibes, February 29, 2024.