Ex-investigating officer Zali Hanapi is pictured at the George Town Sessions Court March 31, 2022. — Picture Sayuti Zainudin
GEORGE TOWN, March 31 — The mystery of Malaysia-born Annapuranee Jenkins deepened today as the coroner’s court here was told of things she had written in her diary, which included her wish not to return home to Australia and that she was apparently involved in a drug case there.
Retired policeman Zali Hanapi, who was called to testify in the court investigation surrounding Annapuranee’s death, said he had received a missing person report lodged by her husband, Francis James Jenkins back in December 2017.
He said that in the police report, Francis said he had found a notebook belonging to Annapuranee in her luggage in their Penang hotel room.
“It is written in the notebook that she did not wish to return to Australia,” Zali, now 61 years old, testified.
He added that the contents of the notebook were written in English, a language which he does not understand.
“Inspector Fitri, who went to talk to the complainant with me, was the one to tell me what was written in the notebook,” Zali said.
Zali told the court that “Inspector Fitri” was the investigating officer from the northeast district in Penang back then. The inspector’s full name and relation to the case was not disclosed to the court at this point in time.
“According to Inspector Fitri, she had also written that she was involved with a drug case in Australia,” he said.
The pensioned policeman said Inspector Fitri interviewed Francis. But Zali admitted in court that he did not fully understand their conversation as it was conducted in English.
“Inspector Fitri told me the details of what they spoke about but I can’t remember the details now,” he said.
He related that it was Inspector Fitri who told him that Annapuranee had written notes about charity organisations and religion in the notebook.
Zali said they also found a handphone hidden in between layers of clothes in the luggage belonging to Annapuranee.
He believed the handphone belonged to Annapuranee.
“I checked the phone and according to the call records, it was not used in those two days, on December 13 and 14,” he said.
However, when asked if he seized the handphone and notebook they found in the luggage, Zali said the police did not do so because it was not part of their SOP for a missing person’s report.
“In a missing person’s report, our focus is only to find the missing person so we did not seize the items belonging to the missing person,” he said.
However, Zali said the discovery of the handphone and notebook, along with the content of the notebook, were recorded in the investigation papers of the case.
Zali had earlier testified that he had gone with Inspector Fitri and a police photographer to investigate the missing person report after it was filed by Francis on December 14, 2017 at 9.28am.
Zali also read aloud the missing person’s report in which Francis said his wife told him she wanted to go to the Goh Dental Clinic at about 3pm on December 13.
“At about 5.22pm, I received a call from my wife from the number 04-31232617 saying she was being held by two unidentified Ukrainians and they asked for her international passport and that she wanted to return to the hotel,” Zali said, reading an excerpt from Francis’ police report.
Zali related that Francis related how he searched for Annapuranee when she did not return to their hotel room by 6pm that day, but failed to find her.
She was last seen wearing a brown t-shirt, a black jacket and long black skirt.
Zali said Francis had filed the report through a translator by the name of Gan Xiao Wern.
Other than inspecting the hotel room, Zali told the court that he went to Goh Dental Clinic to investigate the case upon instructions from his superior.
At the clinic, he spoke to the nurse and the dentist. The nurse informed Zali that she had called an Uber for Annapuranee, which was how the police obtained the driver’s name, car plate number and contact number.
He also said he only took Annapuranee’s treatment records from the dental clinic for investigation purposes.
When asked if he obtained the CCTV recording at the clinic, Zali said he did, but was told the person in charge of the CCTV was not around at that time.
Zali was also asked if he obtained other CCTV recordings in the area such as the one from CIMB bank next to the clinic, but said he did not.
He said he had contacted the Uber driver who picked up Annapuranee, Tan Tiang Guan, and recorded his statement on December 18.
Zali also told the court that he had only recorded statements from the dental clinic nurse, Lim Cheng Wooi, on January 31, 2018 and from the dentist, Dr Lee Wooi Seng, on February 8 the same year.
Annapuranee went to the dental clinic and was on the way to visit her mother at the Little Sisters of the Poor before she disappeared on December 13 in 2017.
Annapuranee’s remains and belongings were found on June 24 in 2020 at a construction site near where she was last seen.
Annapuranee’s case caught the attention of the South Australian government when a member of the legislative council, Frank Pangallo, took up the case on behalf of the Jenkins family last year.
Pangallo said the South Australian Parliament is closely monitoring the inquest.
The inquest hearing will resume in the afternoon after a lunch break.