South Australian government to monitor inquest into death of Annapuranee Jenkins

GEORGE TOWN, March 28 — The South Australian government will be monitoring the proceedings of the inquest into the death of Annapuranee Jenkins, said a member of the South Australian legislative council, Frank Pangallo.

He said he hopes that there will be preliminary discussions with South Australian Police and the Australian Federal Police about any assistance they may be able to render to their Malaysian counterparts.

“It’s been a difficult four-year process for the Jenkins family to get to this point,” he said in a statement issued today.

He said the onus is now on the Malaysian authorities and the coroner to get to the truth about Annapuranee’s disappearance and her unexplained death.

“The family is hoping the inquest can shed some light into their wife and mother’s final movements and finally bring them some much-needed closure on who is responsible for her death,” he said.

“The family is also seeking to have Anna’s remains returned to Adelaide as soon as possible,” he added.

Pangallo said it was an unprecedented step by the South Australian Parliament to request the president of the Legislative Council write directly to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in Malaysia and other authorities about the concerns it had about Annapuranee’s case not being fully investigated.

Pangallo had taken up the case of Annapuranee’s mysterious death on behalf of the Jenkins family last year by taking it to the highest levels of government in Canberra.

“The Malaysian authorities must take note of the serious interest expressed by the Parliament of South Australia in seeking that justice is served to one of our citizens who never returned home safely to her family,” he said.

He said the case was of interest to the South Australian government because of the close bilateral relationship between South Australia and Malaysia as well as Adelaide being a sister city of George Town.

“Penang also has special significance to Australians because of the long-standing Royal Australian Air Force base in Butterworth,” he said.

He stressed that there was no conflict between Australian and Malaysian (Penang) authorities over the handling of the case, but he hoped it would lead to a higher degree of collaboration between both countries.

“Faced with a similar situation in this country, our criminal justice system would treat international citizens who were victims of crime no differently than our own,” he said.

He said the inquest is the start of a long arduous process for Annapuranee’s family to find some form of closure to the case that has dragged on for four years.

He said it is the family’s hope that the inquest will bring them closure and that the alleged perpetrators in the case can be brought to justice.

Late last year, Pangallo presented a motion in the South Australian legislative council to call on the Malaysian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into Annapuranee’s case.

The inquest into her death begins today at the Sessions Court here before Coroner Norsalha Hamzah.

Annapuranee went missing on December 13, 2017 while on the way to visit her mother at a nursing home.

Her remains and belongings were found in 2020 at a construction site near where she was last seen.