Neighbour recalls terrified woman witnessing son's body placed in drum

The mother of a two-year-old boy whose blanket-wrapped remains were found in a drum at a Paya Nahu flat unit here today, had told a neighbour she saw her boyfriend had placed the body in the drum.

However, Norkhoshimah Johari, who also resided at the flat said the woman had sought her assistance as she was powerless to do anything.

She was relating events leading to the incident whereby, the victim's body was found by the police.

"Yesterday, I was at home with my family when the woman and her four-year-old daughter turned up, looking terrified and wanting to hide from someone.

"Later, the woman began to relate her ordeal at the hands of the boyfriend, involving her and her two children, including the victim.

"She said the boyfriend abused them repeatedly. They were hit, punched, kicked and trampled upon all the time," the 26-year-old mother of four told Bernama at her flat unit here today.

Early this morning, Kuala Muda police received a complaint that a four-year-old girl had been abused. Upon checking on the complaint, a police team stumbled upon the remains of the two-year-old boy in the drum.

The remains were found wrapped in a toto blanket and concealed in a drum in one of the rooms of the flat unit.

The police have detained the victim's 26-year-old mother and the 34-year-old boyfriend and remanded them for seven days to facilitate investigations.

It is learnt the abused girl has been warded in critical condition at the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital.

Norkhoshimah said previously, the victim's mother was afraid to take her children - who were abused by the boyfriend - to the hospital or report the matter to police for fear of being suspected of complicity.

"However, after being persuaded, she told me to place an emergency call to the police.

"Before the young girl was sent to the hospital for treatment, the woman told me that her son was dead and that the body was in the house.

"Only then, did I know that the woman's son had been dead for two weeks, and she told me that she saw how and where her son's body was hidden.

"The woman said she was emerging from a bathroom when the boyfriend told her that her son was dead as a result of a fall," she said, adding that she knew the boyfriend who lived in the flat and only knew the woman and her two children since they moved in about a month ago.

Norkhoshimah recalled that some time ago, she had knocked on the couple's flat unit door and when it was opened, she noticed the (now-deceased) boy's face bruised and eyes swollen. --Bernama