JOHOR BARU: Police have reclassified the death of a four-year-old boy earlier this month as murder, and his stepmother has been charged with the crime.
Johor police chief Comm Datuk Ab Rahaman Arsad said initial investigations indicated that the victim was found unconscious by his 23-year-old stepmother, a foreigner, in a room at a house in Taman Perling here on the afternoon of June 2.
"She called an ambulance, but the child was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital," he said in a statement on Tuesday (June 16).
"An external examination of the child's body initially found no signs of physical injury and the case was classified as sudden death.
"However, a post-mortem on June 3 found that the cause of death was blunt trauma to the chest."
Comm Rahaman said that following the finding, the case was reclassified under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.
"This led to the arrest of three suspects, including the stepmother.
"The other two were the victim's 32-year-old father and 22-year-old uncle, who are also foreigners," he said, adding that they were detained at three separate locations around the city on June 3.
However, Comm Rahaman said the two men were later released and made prosecution witnesses.
He added that the stepmother was charged at the Magistrate's Court here with murdering the child.
No plea was recorded as murder cases are under the jurisdiction of the High Court, and the accused was not offered bail.
