Source of this article: THE MALAY MAIL read here
Body parts puzzle
Police baffled over murder of suspected mother and child whose remains were found at a vacant apartment
Friday, August 5th, 2011 11:37:00
Several internal organs, intestines and stomach in toilet bowl
AMPANG JAYA: Mystery deepened into the grisly find of 15 highly decomposed body parts of a mutilated woman and the intact remains of a boy stuffed in a plastic bag in the bathroom of an unoccupied apartment in Taman Kosas even as it emerged the victims may be mother and child.
The police are perplexed over the circumstances surrounding the horrific double murder and the eventual dumping of the body parts and the dead child in apartment 36 on the fifth floor of Block Chryssa, Astaria Apartments.
While initial thoughts pointed to mother and child, DNA tests are to be conducted to determine the bond between them, said Ampang Jaya district police chief ACP Amiruddin Jamaluddin.
First reports indicated the boy, aged six or seven, could have been strangled to death because there was no slash mark on his body.
The child’s intact body was stuffed into a plastic bag and forced into a gaping hole in the plaster ceiling of the bathroom at the apartment.
The woman was decapitated as her head was not among the body parts found in four other plastic bags that were hanging from sharp plaster ceiling splinters. Also missing were her torso and right leg.
Several other mutilated body parts of a woman strewn in the bathroom including: A left leg on the floor. Missing — head, right leg and torso.
Police are trying to establish what was used to dismember the woman's body based on the hacking and have not ruled out more than one sharp object having been utilised.
She was also thought to have been disembowelled as intestines and stomach were stuffed into the toilet bowl.
Amiruddin said an autopsy of the chopped up body confirmed it was that of an adult woman and fingerprint analysis was underway to ascertain her identity.
Amiruddin said an autopsy of the chopped up body confirmed it was that of an adult woman and fingerprint analysis was underway to ascertain her identity.
He said police teams were also scanning missing persons’ reports and talking to the residents of the apartment complex and the surrounding areas to get leads on the killings.
Police, he said, had also begun examining the surveillance video from the security checkpoint dating back to about a week when the body parts were said to have been dumped in the apartment. Guards are also being interviewed.
Amiruddin said police were also trying to trace the apartment owner and had appealed to him to come forward to assist investigations.
Till Press time, police were no nearer to finding out the identity of the slaughtered woman. No further body parts were also found as the search for them in nearby areas resumed this morning.
The body of a child stuffed in a plastic bag and crammed into a gaping hole in the ceiling. Several body parts in plastic bags hanging from jagged plaster ceiling
'Suddenly I remembered Mona Fandey'
Foul smell, broken furniture give apartment that spooky feeling
The apartment block
BEING a crime journalist the last three years, I have covered many grisly crimes, including the murder of beautician millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya in Banting last year.
But it never struck my mind that I would encounter a finding as horrific as this.
When I went to Astaria Apartment in Taman Kosas for a follow-up to the gruesome discovery of 15 dismembered human body parts and organs yesterday, I was really thrilled and curious to know what had actually happened.
The entrance to unit 36
After being granted permission by the apartment’s joint management board chairman Datuk Thajudeen Mohideen, The Malay Mail pixman Arif Kartono and I were led to the unit accompanied by a janitor, Juni Juim, a 35-year-old Sabahan.
As we approached the abandoned unit on the fifth floor of Charyssa block, a foul smell started sneaking into our noses. Arif could not stand the stench and had to cover his nose with a handkerchief. Juni and I did the same.
Although the door of the unit had been blocked off with plywood, we slowly entered as we needed to take photos of the alleged crime scene. At this point, I was wondering how the neighbours could endure such a stench.
The dwelling is about 1,000sq ft and has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Juni pointed to me the spooky bathroom where all the body parts were found.
When we neared the place, the smell in the air became so intolerable and Arif almost threw up while I gathered every muscle I had in my body to bear the foul odour.
The house was messy, with broken furniture and empty whiskey bottles scattered in the living area. That gave me the impression that this unit could have been used as a port for alcoholics to hang out. There were two wrecked television sets and lots of rubbish in the rooms. The master bedroom had a mattress, all torn up.
Window panes were cracked with broken glass on the floor. The walls were spray painted with several vulgar words.
The living room of the vacant unit
Suddenly, my mind flashed back to the case of Batu Talam State assemblyman Datuk Mazlan Idris, whose body, dismembered into 18 pieces, was found in a storeroom in an unnumbered house in Ulu Dong, Raub, Pahang in 1993. The case shocked the nation as it was deemed the most morbid at the time.
In that case, police had arrested a singer-turn-bomoh, Mona Fandey, her husband Mohamad Nor Affandi Abdul Rahman and their assistant Juraimi Hassan, for the crime of ritual murder. The trio was later convicted in a trial and executed in 2001.
Snapping back to reality, I heard Juni telling me that the murder may have occurred outside the apartment. He said if it had been committed inside the unit, there must have been a commotion and the neighbours surely would have heard it.
Although the whole house stank like crazy, I forced myself to focus on picturing how the murderer had dumped the left leg in the bathroom and disposed other organs inside the toilet bowl. I forced my eyes open. I had to know the truth. It was my job.
No sign of unit 36 owner
DESPITE various attempts, the management of Astaria Apartment in Taman Kosas, Ampang Jaya, has not been able to locate the owner of the ill-fated unit 36 in Block Charyssa.
Joint management chairman Datuk Thajudeen Mohideen said the unit had been vacant the past 10 years and no one knew the whereabouts of the owner.
He said the gruesome body-parts find has spooked residents who never imagined such a heinous crime would happen in their neighbourhood.
"Most of us believe the crime occurred elsewhere and the body parts were dumped in the abandoned unit," said Thajudeen who has been living there the past 18 years.
There are some 1,400 people living in 530 units in six apartment blocks, he said, adding about 50 per cent of the owners have rented out their premises.
"The landlords usually rent out to foreigners like Nigerians, Bangladeshis and Nepalese and the rent could easily skyrocket to RM1,500 per month," said Thajudeen.
He said the owner of unit 36 has abandoned his house due to an outstanding amount of maintenance debt that he failed to pay.
"We found that there are still four units within this apartment that have been abandoned, and we still cannot trace the owners."
When asked about security in the area, he said prior to the incident, the apartment had already beefed up its security.
"We had implemented the use of access cards for the residents to monitor their entrance and exit, particularly those who used vehicles to enter the apartment's compound."
Meanwhile, the apartment's janitor, Juni Juim, 35, said he has being working there for two years and Wednesday's incident is one moment he will never forget.
"My colleagues had received complaints about a strong stench and they checked it out. They spotted a right leg and then called me in, just to confirm it," said Juni.
"I took one look at the leg and my body shivered. It was actually a human leg."
More questions than answers
Police stumped why killers risked dumping remains at apartment
INVESTIGATORS are baffled why someone would dump the remains of the murdered victims in an apartment when the risk of being captured on surveillance cameras or seen by residents was high.
A source reasoned: “The body parts could have been dumped in an isolated place instead of in an apartment complex that has six blocks and 530 units with some 1,400 residents.
“Why did the killer/killers take the risk of being recognised by residents or security guards at the apartment complex?”
“Someone must have had knowledge that the unit had been vacant for a long time.
"Someone must have checked out the unit and observed the movements of the immediate neighbours before making his move probably when they were asleep,” said the source.
He said police did not discount the possibility that the killer/killers had lived in Astaria Apartment.
The manner in which the remains of the woman and the child were disposed of was also bewildering, said the source.
“First, it would not have been easy for someone to carry all the plastic bags containing the body parts and the child in one go.
“Further, the killer/s would have needed a ladder to reach the six-foot high ceiling to hang the plastic bags on the jagged plaster ceiling and to stuff the body of the boy into an opening in the ceiling.
“More than one person is believed involved because someone had to carry the ladder while the other had to lug the body parts and the boy who for a six-year-old could weigh more than 20kg, The deadweight would be higher,” the source said.
Questions have also been raised about the familiarity of the killer/s with the apartment complex, especially Block Chryssa.
“The choice of that block suggests the person/s were familiar with the apartments and the killings could have been planned,” the source said.
Making headlines for wrong reasons
CRIME is on the increase in Taman Kosas with recent cases making residents more fearful for their safety.
Questions are being posed on efforts taken by the authorities to increase security in the area, including calls for more police.
Said a resident: "Taman Kosas, once a peaceful neighbourhood, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons."
While not blaming the large number of foreigners living in there, he urged the authorities to keep close tabs on them to check possible involvement in undesirable activities.
Recent cases in Taman Kosas:
● May 11, 2011: A college student is arrested for raping a 15-year-old girl in his Toyota Alphard. The 23-year-old had followed the girl and grabbed her while she was walking.
He parked his car on the road shoulder, undressed and raped the girl in the rear seat.
● May 25, 2011: The decomposed body of a 23-year-old Myanmar sundry shop worker is found under a bed at a shophouse in Jalan 1/5 Taman Kosas. Residents alerted the police following awful stench emanating from the unit.
● Nov 13, 2009: A 23-year-old man is detained in a hostage drama at a beauty saloon at Ampang Waterfront near Taman Kosas. The man said to be overcome by rage, fired three shots at the ceiling of the beauty salon where he held his ex-lover, the 35-year-old owner of the shop, hostage. He surrendered after 30 minutes.
TAMAN Kosas is a residential area with terrace houses, condominium, apartments and flats. Its immediate
neighbours are Taman Ampang Indah, Bukit Indah and Bandar Baru Ampang.
neighbours are Taman Ampang Indah, Bukit Indah and Bandar Baru Ampang.
Ayers Tower is a single block highrise condominium block within the same vicinity as Astaria. The area also has two other apartments, Kasturi and Widuri Apartments, as well as Chancellor Condominium.
A shophouse area in the middle of Taman Kosas houses various amenities including cybercafes and estaurants. A primary and secondary school are among the other facilities in the area.
In recent years, there has been an increase of foreigners in the area.
Recent crimes with mutilated body parts
ON New Year's Eve 2011, the skull and limbs of Liew Kuan Mang, a 29-year-old air-cond businessman were found by Indah Water workers while cleaning up an oxidation pond in Taman Pasir Mas, Sungai Chua, Kajang. Body parts found were from the waist to the ankles.
Liew was last seen entering the toilet of a mamak restaurant near his house in Kajang after returning from a nightclub near the Petronas Twin Towers with three friends around 2am on Nov 7. His friends claimed they had a fight with bouncers at the club.
Just two weeks earlier on Dec 12, two exotic animal hunters discovered a sports bag with a hand sticking out of it in a ravine near Chin Swee Cave Temple in Gohtong Jaya, Genting Highlands. Inside the bag was also a severed leg.
About 13 metres away, they found another luggage with a head, still attached to the torso, in it.
Police believed the body belonged to a disabled teenage girl; the head was larger than normal and the right hand abnormally smaller.
She had curly hair, dark skin and was fully dressed. There was no sign of any physical injury.
And there has been no news on the case since.
On July 29, 2007, the new owner of a luxury condominium in Mont Kiara found the remains of a man, cut into pieces, stuffed in a refrigerator. The fridge had been sealed with masking tape. DNA tests confirmed the victim as Singaporean Goh Yoke Seng. Police arrested Goh's wife, a 33-year-old Sarawakian woman, who later confessed to the murder.
It was reported that the house had been vacant for three months before the new owner, a man in his 30s, came and made the discovery after smelling a strong stench.
The case, so gruesome, was dubbed "body-in-fridge".
COMMENTS
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