GEORGE TOWN: The family of missing Annapuranee Jenkins (pix) is puzzled how the Aussie grandmother’s alleged belongings could be found beneath the foothills of the Penang Hill Range as the area was largely inaccessible when she vanished in 2017.
At that time the area was a jungle and it was only cleared for a landscaping project last year.
The only way through was likely a dirt path.
Now, Annapuranee’s children are hoping the police can shed light on how their mother’s alleged belongings could make its way through rough terrain to lie scattered atop a molehill.
“We need to determine how come the belongings are in an area which is hard to access in the first place. The discovery of the items in such a remote location deepens our anxiety level,“ said Steven Jenkins, the son.
He hopes that the police can review the investigation in view of the items found.
Among the items believed to belong to the Adelaide resident were a room key card, toiletry, a handbag, a purse, apparel, Aussie and ringgit coins.
They were found scattered on a molehill under a steep granite range and most baffling was the skeletal remains of a pelvic bone found 20 metres apart, said northeast district police chief ACP Soffian Santong.
Also found were a rosary bead and a cross, which Steven says may belong to his mother who has been missing since Dec 13, 2017.
There are no neighboring living settlements in the area.
Soffian theorised that the only way into the area was to cut through tiny dirt foot paths but it was difficult for an elderly woman to make her way through it.
Nonetheless, Soffian said that the police would recall the witnesses and reexamine what little evidence they have of the most baffling case in recent memory.
The grandmother of two, who was 65 when she went missing, had become a cold case to the cops until a construction worker stumbled upon the items last month.
Her alleged belongings were found about 3km from where she was last seen alive.
Villagers staying across the site spoke of how spooky the place was with history indicating that it was a battleground during World War II and the nearby Penang Turf Club and race track were once barracks to the British military.
While the police await DNA samples from Annapuranee’s family; Steven and his sister Jennifer expressed their displeasure at the slow pace of the investigation.
Steven plans to return to Penang to assist the police and to positively identify the belongings of his mother.
Soffian denied that the police were uncooperative to the family, citing that the investigation had continued despite the police reaching a dead end.
He said that the police has issued a stop work order on June 24 after a report was lodged by the project supervisor over the findings.
On Dec 13, 2017, Annapuranee informed her husband Frank that she was going for a dental appointment before she tried to book a ride sharing app from the hotel where she was staying.
Upon completing her treatment, she went to the nearby Immaculate Conception Church to pray where she was allegedly in an emotional state before returning to the clinic to book a ride to the old folks home.
Midway though the journey, she asked the driver to drop her off at the Sri Ramakrishna Orphanage along Jalan Scotland where she was last seen outside.
