GEORGE TOWN – The officer in charge of investigating Annapuranee Jenkins’ disappearance told the coroner’s court today that he found evidence to show that she did not want to return to Australia.
Jenkins, 67, went missing on December 13, 2017 while en route to visit her mother at a nursing home in Penang. Her remains were found three years later at a construction site not far from where she was last seen.
Sergeant Zali Hanapi, 61, told the court that he found a diary and phone among a pile of clothes in Jenkins’ luggage that was placed on the floor of the hotel room where she was staying, on the day her husband Frank lodged a missing person report on December 14.
Zali, who said he does not understand English, was accompanied by one Inspector Fikri during their inspection of the Jenkins’ room as part of their investigations into her disappearance.
The diary contained an entry where Jenkins wrote about her intention to not return to Australia, and another entry where she said she was involved in drug trafficking in Australia, Zali said based on translations provided by Fikri.
The officers also went through the mobile phone and found that it had not been in use for the past 48 hours since it was found.
Neither the diary, phone, nor luggage were taken as evidence as it was not part of police standard operating procedures (SOP), said Zali, who has since retired from the force.
“My only SOP is to trace the missing person and find the lost person. The items I found in the hotel room could not help with the investigation,” he said.
Earlier, a caregiver with the Little Sisters of the Poor elderly care home, where Jenkins’ mother had stayed, testified that she had seen Jenkins twice.
The caregiver, Agnes Cecilia T. Arulandu, said Frank had contacted the home on the evening of Jenkins’ disappearance to check if his wife had arrived as planned.
Parit Buntar-born Jenkins was in Penang on a short holiday with her husband when she went missing.
Her remains were found at a construction site in Batu Gantong here in June 2020, about 3km from where she was last seen alighting from an Uber ride. – The Vibes, March 31, 2022
