Anna Jenkins’ family wants protection for finder

GEORGE TOWN: The family of Annapuranee Jenkins, the Australian woman whose bone fragments were found near Penang Turf Club, wants the Malaysian construction worker who first spotted her remains to be protected.

“He is now a potential witness in the case. We do not want him to face any harassment by third parties or have any untoward incident happen to him,” said lawyer S. Raveentharan.

“He has been cooperative and helpful. He found the remains at a site next to the Turf Club in Jalan Batu Gantung in late June.

“When there were digging works there, they found the remains.

“After alerting the police about the remains at the site, the worker looked up the case before contacting the late Annapuranee’s family members,” he said at a press conference at Kebun Bunga assemblyman Jason Ong’s office here yesterday.

Now that there was a confirmed DNA match with Annapuranee’s, the next step was to determine the cause of death, he said.

The construction worker has been given a reward by the family.

Annapuranee, then 66, who was born in Parit Buntar, Perak, had returned for a routine visit to Penang with her Australian husband before she vanished after getting off an e-hailing ride on a busy street in 2017.