PETALING JAYA: “Abang, I’m really sorry. Now, I promise to not bother you or sister-in-law anymore. I promise and I will prove that I will be successful out there. I’d like to ask one thing of you, please don’t look for me. Let me just have one chance at life.”
That was what Siti Norhidayah Kamsani, 16, wrote in a goodbye letter to her brother Wan Mohd Zamree Kamsani, 42, before running away on Aug 14.
The teen had been living under the care of her elder brother, a petrol station supervisor, since their father passed away in January last year.
Siti Norhidayah, who dropped out of school at 15, worked as a cleaner back home in Larkin, Johor, before she ran away, said her sister-in-law Suriana Azianti Shahril, 27.
“Her parents passed away so she was in our care. It’s possible that she had a boyfriend, but we can’t be sure as she was so secretive, putting passwords on her phone.
“I think she ran away after being influenced by her friends and wanted freedom,” said Suriana, a housewife, in an interview.
She told The Star she recently learned that Siti Norhidayah is now working in Kuala Lumpur, but could not confirm her location.
“We hope to find her soon.
“When we do, we will make sure that she gets the help she needs,” she said.
Meanwhile, in Kampung Pandan, Kuala Lumpur, the family of missing schoolgirl Jenifer Anthonysamy still hold on to the hope that they will be reunited with the apple of their eye two years after she failed to return home one day.
The youngest of four siblings, Jenifer would be 14 next month. She was last seen in her school uniform, a green shirt and blue skirt.
Her friends said she left school at 12.30pm on the day she went missing and did not attend tuition class.
Jenifer, about 135cm tall at the time, was last seen riding pillion on a motorcycle with an unidentified person on June 19, 2015.
Since then, her family members have been desperately searching for her, but to no avail.
Jenifer’s half-sister J. Kalidevi, 29, said the family misses her and has not given up hope of finding her one day.
“We think about her every day. We won’t ever forget her and want her to come home.
“Wherever she is, whether it is at a relative’s house or a friend’s house, we want her to come home.
“Please help us get Jenifer home,” pleaded the eldest sibling.
Kalidevi said the search for Jenifer had yielded no leads so far, despite the press coverage following her disappearance.
MIC Youth also helped the family by distributing poster-sized brochures of Jenifer around Kuala Lumpur.
However, no one has contacted the family with information about the missing girl.
Despite the fruitless search, Kalidevi finds comfort in the fact that the police are still on the case and last visited the family early this month.
Norhidayah and Jenifer’s stories are just two among hundreds of cases where young girls leave home, enticed by the notion of freedom.
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