Airline executive not fatally slashed, death was even more tragi

Shahrinawati's mother is inconsolable at the funeral. The Malaysian Insider pic by Afif Abd Halim. August 29, 2013.

Airline executive Shahrinawati Abu Bakar's death early today was even more tragic than previously thought when new facts emerged this evening.

Police this evening said she was not slashed to death but died after a motorist who tried to go after the men who had just robbed her hit Shahrinawati instead.

Ampang police chief Assistant Commissioner Amiruddin Jamaluddin said it was the motorist and his friend who rushed Shahrinawati to the hospital but she succumbed to her injuries.

"The motorist had witnessed the two men trying to rob the victim. He then reversed his car to stop the two from escaping on a motorcycle but accidentally hit the victim instead," said Amiruddin.

Initial reports suggested that Shahrinawati died from slash wounds inflicted by the robbers but investigations showed otherwise.

The two robbers escaped on a black Yamaha LC motorcycle but it was learnt that one of them dropped his wallet.

The incident occurred in front of the Palm Villa City Garden Condo in Taman Cempaka, Ampang, where the victim stayed with her three younger sisters.

AirAsia X officer Shahrinawati, 30, was attacked by the two men as she got out of her car at about 2.45am.

Best friend Siti Mariam Mohd Hanif, 23, an AirAsia X ground executive, described her as an excellent team leader.

"She was strict when it came to work but that was how she earned everyone's respect. She was a natural problem-solver," Siti Mariam said, adding that the last time she met her friend was at a staff briefing yesterday afternoon.

She was informed of her death by Shahrinawati's fiance Mohd Azrul Kamarudin, a security officer with AirAsia X.

Shahrinawati's father, Abu Bakar Jemain, 53, was calm when met at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital mortuary.

"This is fated. Let police handle the investigations," he said.

Abu Bakar, a businessman from Miri, said he last met his daughter on Tuesday at her condo.

"I come down often to KL to meet my daughters."

Friends and colleagues were at the Nurul Hidayah mosque in Pandan Indah this evening to pay their last respects.

Among them was AirAsia X chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani.

Azran paid tribute to Shahrinawati in his email to staff, saying "she was a promising young talent" who had been sent to Melbourne to get international experience.