Mother of toddler in grisly murder could be charged, say police
Police are looking into the possibility of charging the mother of a two-year-old who was abducted and beheaded by a man near the Klang River, reported The Straits Times.
The daily said this is a possibility as there have been irregularities in the statement given by Siti Salmy Suib over events which led to her child's disappearance and subsequent murder.
The 32-year-old said that she had left her daughter Siti Soffea Emelda Abdullah with her friends because she had to use the toilet while shopping in Kota Raya at 3pm last Thursday.
However, Siti Salmy said that her daughter had disappeared when she came out of the toilet about five minutes later, adding that she and her friends carried out a search for the toddler at the shopping complex but to no avail.
Only when police tracked her down later that night did she learn what had happened to her daughter.
Siti Soffea was murdered with her head severed, believed to be cut off by the suspect, on the banks of the Klang River near the Kuala Lumpur Komuter station in Jalan Hishamuddin, on May 29.
Witnesses claimed to have seen a man place the child on the river bank before smashing her head and doing "something" to her neck. When they approached him, he escaped by jumping into the river.
"However, when we checked CCTV footage, the victim was seen playing by herself when she was taken by the suspect," a police source said in The Straits Times report.
"There were no friends around. Maybe there were friends but they were not there when she was taken. We are looking into her story, maybe she is trying to cover up for herself," it said.
The report said closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) footage showed a security guard had watched the suspect lead Siti Soffea away but had done nothing.
When questioned, the guard told police it was because he was used to seeing several different people playing with and taking care of the child, adding that the mother and daughter were regulars at the mall.
"We may include issues of negligence in the case papers when we forward them to the Deputy Public Prosecutor," the source was quoted as saying in the report.
On Saturday, members of public found the body of the suspect floating in the Klang River near the Sunway toll plaza. He is believed to have been freed from Kajang Prison on May 26 after undergoing a two-year jail sentence for robbery.
Although the case is considered solved, police are said to be still baffled about the motive behind Siti Soffea's gruesome murder
"We still don't know why he did it. We will need time to process the suspect's fingerprints... We are looking at this case from all angles and have recorded statements from Siti Soffea's parents and those who knew her," said Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department chief senior assistant commissioner Gan Kong Meng, in the report. – June 3, 2014.
