DISABLED GIRL MISSING AFTER GOING OUT TO PLAYGROUND

MELAKA, April 6 (Bernama) -- A teenage girl with a learning disability has been reported missing yesterday afternoon at Taman Rambai Idaman here.

Melaka Tengah district police chief ACP Christopher Patit said Nurin Wardina Hairi, 18, was reported missing by her mother, 47, at 9.38 pm after she realised that her daughter did not return home at about 5.30 pm..

"The mother had seen her daughter leaving the house at 3 pm to play at a nearby playground after choosing not to follow her to send her sister to work at Tanjung Minyak.

"After she arrived home, she saw her daugther was not at home and asked her husband to check the playground but she was missing… then she asked the help of residents there to look for their daughter,” he said in a statement today.

The mother said she noticed a silver Perodua Kelisa parked nearby in a suspicious manner when she previously left, but thought it belonged to a guest of a homestay next to her house.

Christopher also said that according to a resident in the area, the disabled girl had followed and gotten into the Produa Kelisa willingly and did not seemed to have been forced, causing the resident to think that the car was owned by her relative.

"The girl’s mother said that her daughter could barely speak and can only understand simple words and was hard to approach and did not have close friends.

"Her daughter would routinely go to the playground to sit on the swing and had never not returned home, always coming back on time,” he said.

The girl, Christopher said, was 145 cm high, thin and had shoulder length hair and was last seen wearing a green t-shirt and black pants.

The investigating officer had gone to the location and obtained CCTV footage of the Proton Kelisa’s movements to track the owner of the vehicle, he added.

-- BERNAMA