GEORGE TOWN: Police are hoping more eyewitnesses will come forward to assist in the case of Annapuranee Jenkins (pix), who went missing in 2017.
Jenkins was last seen wandering around near the Penang Turf Club in Batu Gantang here.
Investigators are hoping more people may have crossed paths with the Aussie grandmother who had vanished more than three years ago, while visiting Penang to tend to her ailing mother who passed on last year.
Jenkins’ alleged personal belongings, comprising a room key card, toiletry, a handbag, a purse, apparel, Aussie and Ringgit coins, were found scattered atop a molehill, at a construction site adjacent to the race course.
To complicate matters, the area was largely inaccessible as it was a jungle when she disappeared back then. The only way through was via a possible dirt path.
The area was only cleared for a landscaping project last year.
Jenkin’s belongings were found 20m from skeletal remains, said to be of a human pelvic bone, according to northeast district police chief ACP Soffian Santong.
Soffian said that there were no living settlements in the area back then, which was mostly covered with trees and bushes, located deep within the foothills of the Penang Hill Range.
He is hoping that someone in the area opposite the race course would have recalled seeing Jenkins or even engaged with the Aussie grandmother of two before she went missing.
The police will be conducting a DNA test soon on the bone sample before submitting the results to the prosecuting office to determine the next course of the investigation which had gone cold.
If the test is positive, Soffian said there is a possibility that the forensic teams may be asked to scour the area to look for more clues.
Jenkin’s son Steven said that he is hoping to arrive in Penang this week to assist the police in whatever way possible. He said the family is hoping that something more concrete on the case can be reached soon.
