Zayn Rayyan Abdul Matin’s father screamed unpleasantries when he saw the 6-year-old autistic boy’s body on a sandbank near a stream behind their apartment complex on the night of Dec 6, 2023, the Sessions Court heard today.
Sales executive Faizul Najib Abd Munaim, 47, who discovered the boy’s body at 9.40pm during a search with others at Apartment Idaman, Damansara Damai, said what was said by the father was unpleasant to hear.
“His words were not nice. I felt uneasy. He said things like ‘celaka’. And I remember he said ‘Who killed my child’.
“I could hear it as I was standing a metre away. I was dumbfounded. But I understand that his child had gone missing and maybe he was overwhelmed with emotions.
“So, I did not really mind because my thought was he was emotionally disturbed so his language was coarse. His wife asked him to calm down.
“His wife was calm, maybe she had accepted the fact that her son was gone and she could control her feelings,” the sixth prosecution witness told Judge Dr Syahliza Warnoh today.
Faizul recounted another encounter with the father before he left the scene after police recorded his statement.
“I wanted to extend my condolences. But the father told me that when his son was still alive when I found him. He said it twice. But I denied it and I did not want to bother,” he said.
Faizul told the court he and two others were searching an overgrown area and he spotted a boy lying on a sandbank when the beam of his torchlight passed over it.
He said he immediately shouted that the missing boy had been found and to quickly call the ambulance.
“I jumped into the stream, which was about chest level. The boy was lying on his left with his hands clasped near his head and his legs were propped up. His face was clean as if he was sleeping and dreaming. His shirt was slightly lifted but it was clean and so were his pants, with no dirty stains.
“I thought when I screamed, he would have a little response or blink his eye when he heard my voice.
“Sadly, there was none. I knew he was gone. The body was not submerged in water.
“I cried because I regretted that I may have acted late. None of us touched the body. I did not see any injuries on the body, face or legs,” he added.
He said a policeman named Corporal Mohammad Hunter El Arash Jeanawie Untam arrived at the scene and put a black coat over the body and prevented large crowds from gathering there as the situation had become chaotic.
Faizul said the grandfather of the boy also came and held the body.
“I was also approached by a woman, the boy’s nanny. She asked me to describe what the boy looked like. After I told her, she said that was how the boy slept.”
Faizul had also identified the couple, Zaim Ikhwan Zahari and Ismanira Abdul Manaf, both 30, who sat in the dock together.
Faizul, who lives at the nearby Apartment Saujana, said he had embarked on his own search after receiving WhatsApp messages from his community and surau groups on the disappearance of the boy.
“The next day (Dec 7) after the discovery, my wife told me that the case had been reclassified as murder.
“I called Hunter to confirm the matter and later, I was asked to go to the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters to have my statement recorded.
“I just wanted to further explain that on the same day (Dec 7), my neighbour named Hafifi asked me where the body was found.
“I explained and he told me that he had gone to the same spot at 10.11am the day before (Dec 6) and he said the body was not there,” he said.
In June last year, the couple claimed trial to a joint charge of neglect which may have caused physical injury to Zayn Rayyan.
The trial continues this afternoon. – NST