GEORGE TOWN: The son of Annapuranee “Anna” Jenkins is not giving up searching for his 65-year-old mother, missing for almost a year in Penang. His whole family is praying for a Christmas miracle.
Australian Steven “Jenks” Jenkins, 39, has been to Penang 13 times since his mother disappeared without a trace from the Ramakrishna Ashram in Scotland Road after being dropped there by an Uber driver on Dec 13, 2017. There is still no indication of what may have happened to her.
Speaking to FMT on the first anniversary of Anna’s disappearance, a determined and positive-minded Jenks said he, together with his sister Jen and father Frank, have suffered an agonising year.
Anna was born in Parit Buntar, Perak. In the early 1970s, she met her future husband, Frank, who was attached to the Royal Australian Air Force at Butterworth Air Base.
They married and had their eldest child, Jen, in Penang in 1978, and Steven the following year. The couple has two grandsons, aged 5 and 11.
Jenks said he has travelled throughout the peninsula to almost every major town, distributing some 10,000 flyers and posters to publicise his mother’s disappearance and is offering a reward of RM20,000 to anyone who can provide information on her whereabouts.
Anna, a resident of Adelaide, South Australia, was in Penang for a short holiday with her husband Frank last year, as part of her regular trips to visit her mother Mary Anne, who died this year at 102.
Anna had left her hotel alone in a taxi and went for a dental checkup at a clinic on Burma Road, after which a receptionist helped her hail an Uber ride to her mother’s care home in Batu Lanchang Lane. She stopped the Uber short of the care home, alighted, and has not been seen since.
After 24 hours, Anna’s husband lodged a missing person report.
Jenks told FMT that his mother is a kindly soul who would cook rice dishes for a local refugee group in Adelaide at Christmas. He said the refugees missed her last Christmas.
“At Christmas last year, we were all upset, as we had been waiting in vain for 12 days for Mum to return.
“We are still hoping we can have a grand family reunion this year, together with her two little grandsons,” he said.
According to Jenks, the police came up with three different theories to explain Anna’s disappearance. He felt these theories were accusatorial, at best.
One senior policeman told him that Anna may have fled because she could not pay the dentist’s bill. Jenks maintains that was unlikely, as the dentist had told her to return in three days for a follow-up and to pay her bill then. The bill was an estimated A$65 (RM195).
The second scenario, conjured up by another top-ranking officer, was that she might have been still under anaesthetic, and “wandered off into the jungle.”
According to Jenks, the officer told him, “Don’t worry, she’s in the jungle and will come out when she wants to come out.”
The third theory was shocking, with a detective saying Anna might have been abused by her family, including bashing by her son and husband.
“I found that profoundly hurtful because I would never harm my mother and neither would my father,” he said.
“The officer said my mother is probably hiding and afraid to come forward now after seeing all the posters I have put up. He said that she had the ‘right to disappear and the right to be found’.”
Jenks said it was also disappointing that videos from six closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras on Scotland Road was only checked seven or eight weeks after Anna’s disappearance, by which time the city council cameras had been overwritten with new footage.
“Also the police took three months before they got around to interviewing Mum’s dentist. It is regrettable that it took them so long with their whole investigation.”
Despite this, Jenks has been encouraged by several helpful police officers who kept up with the case and periodically updated him on the search, in strong contrast to the lackadaisical attitude of other officers involved.
“Not too long ago I suggested 38 points to the police on what needs to be done. One of the officers was receptive and we emerged out of the meeting feeling positive. We hope this will yield some results. And the reward we are offering may turn up some useful leads.
“I will keep looking. We missed celebrating Christmas together last year, so I hope we’ll find her by Christmas this year. We miss her.”
Jenks pleads, “I implore everyone wherever they may be, to keep an eye out for our mother.” -FMT
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