Batu Pahat, Johor (The Star/ANN) - The babysitter of a four-month-old girl who was found dead in a bush near Tasik Y on Thursday has been arrested, amid claims by two other parents that she had abused their infants.
District police chief Asst Comm Din Ahmad said police detained her after a post-mortem on Lim Xin Yao showed that she died of suffocation.
"Initial investigations showed that the baby had died on Wednesday before her body was discovered by joggers at about 7pm on Thursday," he said here yesterday.
ACP Din said the babysitter had earlier told investigators that she had left the baby alone in her Proton Wira at about 4.30am on Wednesday at Tasik Y as she was putting up a notice for a baby?sitting job on a lamp post 5m away.
According to the 42-year-old single mother of two children, three men suddenly grabbed her and pulled her into their car before driving off to the Batu Pahat Stadium about 1km away.
She said she jumped out when the car stopped at the stadium but, while escaping, slipped and fell unconscious.
Passers-by found her at about 7am and called for an ambulance to send her to the Batu Pahat hospital.
ACP Din said the babysitter was being treated for a broken leg. "And, we are investigating her claims."
Allegations are meanwhile circulating on the Internet that Xin Yao was not the first baby to have died while under the care of the woman.
A man told Xin Yao's parents at the hospital mortuary on Thursday that his two-month-old son also died of suffocation a year ago while under the same babysitter's care.
Another man called up and said his daughter had suffered brain damage when she was four months old when the same woman cared for her.
ACP Din said the allegations would be investigated and hoped that the parents would come forward to help.
Yesterday afternoon, milk bottles, toys, clothes and other belongings were placed with Xin Yao in a little coffin before she was cremated.
Grandfather Tan Ah Kao, 64, related how happy he was when a cousin called to inform him that Xin Yao had been found.
"My happiness was crushed minutes later when another relative told me that it was a body that was found," he said.
Tan said the babysitter had been caring for his granddaughter for three months.
Xin Yao's mother, Tan Hui Kheng, said she received many messages of condolence from well-wishers.
MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek and Penggaram assemblyman Datuk Koh Chee Chai visited the family at their house in Taman Banang Jaya.
"We want the police to investigate the case thoroughly especially since there are other purported cases linked to the babysitter," said Dr Chua.