GEORGE TOWN:The family of Australian woman Annapuranee or Anna Jenkins, who went missing in 2017, has urged police to investigate her disappearance as kidnapping and wrongful detention instead of treating it as a missing person case.
Her son Greg Jenkins travelled from Australia to lodge a fresh police report here on Monday (July 27) urging a reinvestigation based on the High Court's written grounds of decision issued in May.
Greg said the court found that the case was never investigated as kidnapping or wrongful detention, despite evidence pointing in that direction.
"We want the police to investigate this as kidnapping and wrongful detention, not as a missing person case.
"The High Court judge stated in black and white that it was never investigated as a kidnapping and wrongful detention, which it should have been," he told reporters at Batu Gantung, the site where his mother's remains were found.
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He said classifying the case as a missing person matter from the outset had resulted in crucial leads being overlooked.
"So many things were missed and ignored. We are asking the police to continue the investigation based on the High Court's findings," he said.
Greg said the investigation under the appropriate classification would enable investigators to pursue new suspects and leads that were not previously explored.
He said his father informed police in the initial report that Anna telephoned him at 5.22pm on Dec 13, 2017, saying she had been detained by two people she described as being of Ukrainian descent, who were demanding her international passport as ransom.
According to Greg, Anna did not have her passport with her as it had been left at the hotel, and his father advised her to return there before the call abruptly ended.
"That was the last time he heard from her. Dad gave all this information to the police, but the investigating officer decided not to pursue that angle and instead classified it as a missing person case," he claimed.
Greg alleged that no meaningful investigation into the alleged kidnapping was carried out by police.
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"The only investigation that was done was when I came over. I walked through sewer drains, creeks and rivers, spoke to construction workers, e-hailing drivers and anyone who might know something.
"Everything I found I handed to the police, but because it remained a missing person investigation, there was no follow-up," he said.
He claimed police had been unable to determine the exact location where his mother's remains were discovered, saying identifying the original crime scene could be crucial to advancing the investigation.
Asked if he had any leads on the alleged Ukrainian suspects, Greg said he did not.
"I'm not a police officer. There's only so much I can do and only so many doors I can knock on. That's why I keep appealing through the media in the hope that someone, somewhere, knows something," he said.
Greg said that while the exact cause of his mother's death remained undetermined, the coroner had ruled out other possibilities such as suicide or misadventure in the written grounds of decision.
Accompanying Greg at the press conference was his Malaysian lawyer David Dev Peter.
On May 12, 2023, Coroner Norsalha Hamzah, in delivering her decision, said the Coroner's Court found that the evidence available was insufficient or did not meet the required standard to record any other verdict.
Norsalha said based on the evidence presented to the Coroner's Court, she could not determine the cause of death, the nature of the death, or find any criminal elements related to Anna's death.
Anna’s body was found on June 24, 2020, nearly three years after her sudden disappearance while on holiday in Penang.
