Woman raped and murdered after accepting a ride home from stranger

KOTA KINABALU: A 24-year-old woman accepted a ride home from a stranger after her motorcycle broke down only to be found raped and murdered five days later.

The victim, an Indonesian, was approached by a man on a motorcycle when her own motorcycle had broken down in Kalabakan, Sabah around 5pm on Nov 3.

The man, in his 40s, had tried helping her fix the bike before offering to send her home when he could not repair it.

She agreed to follow him and left her motorcycle by the roadside.

According to sources, the man had then allegedly asked if he could have intercourse with her as they reached closer to her worker’s quarters, but she turned him down, and asked him to send her home faster.

The suspect refused to listen and about 1km away from her quarters near an oil palm estate, he stopped and pulled her into some bushes before raping her.

The woman tried to scream but the man strangled her and left her half-naked lifeless body to be discovered five days later by an estate guard.

Tawau OCPD Asst Comm Peter Umbuas said police nabbed the man at 10.48pm the same day the woman's body was discovered.

“We are investigating the case for murder,” he said.