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Shearwey Ooi Ying Ying |
She is believed to have been murdered and her bone fragments strewn in at least four different places – a cemetery, river and an apartment dumpsite in Paya Terubong and another river in Jalan Air Itam.
Penang CPO Deputy Commissioner Datuk Koh Hong Sun said a woman and her boyfriend were arrested at the Bayan Lepas police station at 1pm yesterday in connection with the little girl's death.
The murder allegedly took place in the couple’s rented apartment in Bandar Baru Air Itam on Friday, the day the girl was reported missing by her mother Jess Teh.
It is learnt the man could have killed the girl while the woman, a close relative, was at work. He then brought the body to a nearby cemetery where he burnt the body using kerosene.
After being arrested, the suspect brought a police team, led by forensic pathologist Datuk Dr Bhupinder Singh to the cemetery at 7pm where they found a bone fragment near a tombstone. The girl’s burnt pyjamas were recovered from a nearby river, wrapped in a black plastic bag.
The search later continued at an apartment in Lintang Paya Terubong before proceeding to another river at Jalan Air Itam. The two were then brought back to their rented apartment as police searched for more leads.
Teh, 28, who is in the midst of a divorce, had told a press conference on Saturday that she left Ying Ying outside her car near the Bayan Baru market when she went to pay for her parking ticket and found the girl missing when she returned.
She had appealed to the Penang MCA and the public to help find the girl, leading to a state-wide search involving over 1,000 party members. Thousands of posters of Ying Ying were printed and distributed as well as put up in public places in the hope of finding the girl alive.
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Suspect: Two policemen leading the suspect to the rented apartment in Bandar Baru Air Itam to look for leads. |
Ying Ying's uncle Ooi Eng Hiap, 25, was shocked to learn of his niece's death last night.
“She did not have to die this way,” he said, adding that he had yet to relay the tragic news to his brother, Eng Chew (Ying Ying's father).
Eng Chew had planned to return from Yunnan, China today.
At Ying Ying's grandparents' home in Bandar Baru Air Itam, loud wails and sobs could be heard several doors away.
“Why take the life of an innocent child? I took care of her until she was so big and they killed her just like that,” the grandmother was heard saying in between sobs. The family refused to speak to the press.
State MCA Wanita chief Ooi Siew Kim said: “Ying Ying was an innocent child and we are very sad that things have turned out this way.”
Bayan Baru MP Datuk Wong Kam Hoong, who had offered a RM10,000 reward to locate the girl, described the news as “shocking”.
“We never expected such a tragic end. We had hoped to reunite the family,” he said.
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