GEORGE TOWN – Annapuranee Jenkins may have been followed by two individuals in Australia, based on information in her notebook, the coroner’s court heard today.
During the death inquest proceedings, assistant investigating officer Mohd Fikri Mohamed Jaafar said Annapuranee wrote about this in her notebook, which was found in a Penang hotel room after she was reported missing in 2017.
The eighth witness said Annapuranee also wrote that she had a problem with the Australian police, without elaborating further.
“I read her entry that she refused to return to Australia. However, Annapuranee did not write why she refused to return to Australia,” he told coroner Norsalha Hamzah.
Fikri, 32, added that he found in Annapuranee’s luggage a neatly folded shirt, an item she bought an hour before she reportedly went missing.
What was interesting, he said, was that the shirt has the word “Escape”, as if it portended her disappearance.
“Before this, she herself wrote in a notebook that she refused to return to Australia. So, I think it is a sign from Annapuranee.”
Fikri was among four policemen who investigated Annapuranee’s hotel room with her husband, Francis Jenkins, after a report of her disappearance was made on December 14, 2017.
When asked by state prosecution director Datuk Khairul Anuar Abdul Halim how Francis reacted during the investigation at the hotel, Fikri said the man seemed to be calm.
“Her husband did not show any signs of worry or anxiety. He also did not show any abnormal actions,” answered Fikri.
Meanwhile, the 10th witness, Mohammad Khairul Ali, said the recording of Annapuranee’s son Greg’s statement was made quite late into the investigation.
He admitted that police did not make a recording of Francis’ statement, seeing he was the complainant.
Khairul, who was the head of the Jalan Patani police station at the time, said police held four meetings in the course of their investigation, the last one attended by an Australian embassy representative and Annapuranee’s family members on August 16, 2018.
At the last meeting, he said, police presented all the information they had as well as answered all the questions posed by the family.
The inquest continues at 10am tomorrow. – The Vibes, July 19, 2022
