Sabah cops launch search for missing Italian financial exec

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah police are trying to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of an Italian financial executive last seen stepping off a plane in the east coast Lahad Datu district on Oct 13.

William Bocchi (pic), 52, has not been spotted after landing at 1.05pm that day on a MASwings flight from the state capital.

“That was as far as we could trace his movement since his arrival here,” Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Jalaluddin Abd Rahman said yesterday.

He said Bocchi arrived in Malaysia at Kuala Lumpur Internatioal Airport 2 on Oct 12, before flying over to Kota Kinabalu the following day and taking a connecting MASwings flight to Lahad Datu.

He said Lahad Datu businessman Sia Yiik Huon had reported Bocchi’s disappearance yesterday after being alerted by a friend in Kuala Lumpur whom he identified as Liaw.

Sia told police that Liaw had received an e-mail from Bocchi’s colleague whom he only knew as Fabio.

Expressing concern about Bocchi’s whereabouts, Fabio had told Liaw that his colleague was to have returned to Italy on Oct 16.

Sia also told police that Bocchi, who was in financial services and a sales representative for a compressor distributor, was supposed to have met a client in Lahad Datu.

Jalaluddin said teams from the Lahad Datu police’s Criminal Investigation Department, Special Branch and other units were involved in the search for Bocchi.

Jalaluddin said they were scouring hotels, lodging houses, hospitals as well as the nearby Tabin and Danum Valley conservation areas for the foreigner.