The neighbours of the three-year-old girl murdered by her own uncle at her house in Taman Kepong last night described the family as “problematic”.
Hints of a dysfunctional family:
- Described as rowdy, blaring loud music till early hours
- Youngsters drop by at house at odd hours
- Lots of coming and going of people
- Warned neighbours to mind their own business
- Rarely mixed with community
- Family members threatened and intimidated reporters, warning them not to take photos and to stay away
A neighbour who did not want to named said he kept a distance from them because of their rowdy behaviour.
He said during the weekends, the house was like “a club”, with loud music blaring away and youngsters dropping by at odd hours.
“The house is like an after party place, a stopover for friends who want to continue partying.”
He added that there was a time they were making so much noise in the early morning that one of them called the police.
“The next day, a few guys stood outside the house in the middle of the road and shouted out loud asking all of us to mind our own business. Since then, most of us no longer bother about what goes on in that house,” he said.
Another neighbour staying along the same row agreed but said the child’s great-grandmother who also lived there was okay.
From the day the little girl was born, the great-grandmother was the one who took care of her. She would bring the little girl in her trolley whenever she goes to the market,” she said, adding that the girl was very attached to her great-grandmother.
She said they hardly saw the child’s mother or grandmother, although they all stayed in the same house.
“There are always people coming and going, especially men,” she said.
The New Straits Times reported that during its visit to the house, a few men stopped reporters and photographers from getting near and taking photos.
They warned reporters to stay away from the family.
One of them even insisted on going through the reporters’ phones to ensure no photos were taken.
The victim’s mother, clad in a black t-shirt and shorts, looked calm and composed but refused to talk to reporters.
She was seen twice outside the house before she left for the mortuary in a Myvi at 11.40am. The situation was no different at the hospital mortuary when reporters tried to speak to the family.
Only the victim’s grandfather spoke to the media outside and said that his grandchild’s remains would be brought back to a funeral parlour in Jinjang before she was cremated.
He too refused to take any other questions and walked away.
A small scuffle also broke out outside the mortuary in Hospital Kuala Lumpur today, when a Malay daily’s photographer was roughed up by a family member for taking pictures of them.
It was earlier reported that a 3-year-old girl died after she was stabbed 30 times by a relative at her home in Taman Kepong at 8.30pm yesterday.
The toddler was brutally attacked by her 21-year-old uncle who was allegedly high on drugs.
It was also reported that the alleged assailant is mentally unsound.
It is learnt that the suspect murdered the girl while he was playing with her in the double-storey terraced house without supervision, as her mother and one-year-old sister were sleeping upstairs.
The toddler’s body was discovered by her great-grandmother when she returned home after visiting friends for Hari Raya at about 9.30pm.
“She found the child unconscious and covered in blood in the storeroom, and called out for help.
“At the time, the suspect was still in the house, but was playing with the one-year-old baby then,” Sentul police chief Assistant Commissioner R Munusamy said.
The toddler’s mother and great-grandmother rushed her to the Desa Park City Hospital in Desa Park City, where she was pronounced dead.
Munusamy said the examining doctor found about 30 stab marks on the child’s body, before alerting the police.
She was stabbed with a sharp object.
“The suspect is a relative but does not live with the victim and her family there.
“He (was at) the house to visit them,” Munusamy said.
“The suspect drove there, and knocked on the front door repeatedly, almost forcing himself in before the grandmother allowed him in,” he added.
The child’s body was sent to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) for a post-mortem.
Police arrested the suspect from the same house at around 9.45pm, and are investigating all possible motives.
Neighbours have reportedly described the family as very private, and that they rarely mixed with the community.