KOTA KINABALU: A police officer in Ranau district came home to a tragic find when he noticed his son missing and eventually, discovered drowned.
The 11-year-old was said to have been left at home alone in the afternoon on Saturday (Jan 18), while his father went to work.
“When the father returned home at around 5.40pm, he could not find his son,” said Ranau OCPD Supt Mursalin Mahmud.
A search was mounted when the father and some villagers suspected that the boy could have gone to the nearby Nopungan River in Kampung Minihas.
His body was found by villagers at 8.05pm, some 500 metres from his home, he said.
Supt Mursalin said the initial probe revealed that while the river current appeared normal at the time of the incident, there were whirlpools in the two-metre-deep parts of the river.
“We are not sure whether the victim had gone swimming or what he was doing there prior to the tragedy,” he said.
Villagers involved in the search later sent the body to his family home and he was pronounced dead by a doctor from the Lohan Health Clinic at 9.10pm, he added.
It is learnt that the victim’s father works at the Ranau District Police Headquarters.
