2007 07: Girl missing after mum leaves car for 10 minutes

The Star online. News. Nation. Saturday July 7, 2007

PENANG: A distressed mother is pining for her little daughter who went missing yesterday when she walked away from her car to pay her parking ticket near the Bayan Baru market hawker centre.

The salesgirl, Jess Teh, 28 said she left her three-year-and-nine-month-old daughter, Shearwey Ooi Ying Ying, in her car and went about 100m away to pay the parking attendant.

“It was less than 10 minutes for me to walk over, make my payment, and come back to the car to discover Shearwey missing,” she said.

The incident happened about 8.15am after the mother and daughter finished their breakfast at the hawker centre.

Teh said she went to look around frantically for her only child for more than three hours and contacted her family members and friends for help.

She added that her daughter was wearing her cartoon-printed pyjamas and urged the public to help to look out for her.

Shearwey’s uncle, Ooi Eng Hiap, 25, who helped in the search, said they had checked the market and the surrounding areas.

“My brother, Eng Chew (Shearwey’s father), who is now in China for a business trip has been informed and will be returning home as soon as possible,” he said.

The family later lodged a police report at the Bayan Lepas police station.

The investigation officer said they would be helping to search for the missing girl. Those who have information on the girl can contact the police station at 04-643 0311 or Ooi at 017-498 8403.

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Girl killed
The Star online. News. Nation. Monday July 9, 2007

PENANG: Four-year-old Shearwey Ooi Ying Ying is dead, three days after she was reported missing.

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.

At around noon yesterday, Teh and her mother Ong Sea Wah joined a group of MCA members to distribute posters of Ying Ying at the market.

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.