Series of bungling acts hindered probe into Anna Jenkins’ death: Son

 

From a construction worker allegedly reburying Anna Jenkins’ bones at a different location to purported police indifference, her son contended a series of bungling acts hindered the investigation into her cause of death.

Gregory Steven Jenkins laid out a comprehensive timeline of alleged negligence spanning from when she was reported missing on Dec 5, 2017 to when her remains were found in June 2020 and during the ensuing police investigation. She was 65.

Her remains were found at a construction site within the compound of the Penang Turf Club, along Batu Gantung by a construction worker.

According to the amended statement of claim behind his negligence lawsuit against the police and government, Gregory contended that the authorities showed disinterest in the matter from the onset.

Gregory, 43, claimed these were among others shown by police sending an investigator, who does not understand English, to record a statement from Jenkin’s late husband Francis James Michael Jenkins, who lodged the report on her disappearance.

The applicant added that the same police investigator did not take his father’s claim seriously that he received a call from two Ukrainians who purportedly detained her and demanded her passport. (Jenkin's husband passed away in Adelaide at the age of 84 on June 20, 2023).

Gregory also claimed that this police investigator, to justify the classification of the matter as a missing person’s case, had come up with several theories behind Jenkins’ disappearance, namely:

-that she intended to avoid arrest in Australia;

-that she lost her senses due to anaesthesia after a visit to the dentist and had wandered aimlessly;

-that she escaped the dental clinic as she refused to settle the medical bill;

-that she fled from domestic violence.

(In media reports, Gregory dismissed these police claims over his mother)

Gregory contended that later in mid-2020, a construction worker had allegedly discovered (Anna) Jenkins’ bones and personal belongings in a construction area but did not immediately lodge a police report but reburied the remains in another place around the construction project.

Gregory added that several weeks later, the construction worker informed a project manager about the discovery, with the manager allegedly telling the worker to rebury the remains at another location with prayer recitation.

Jenkins’ son said that when the project manager was informed that the bones and personal belongings had been ‘tampered with’, he directed the construction worker to report the matter to the police.

Gregory contended that the construction worker did not disclose the full facts regarding the discovery of the remains until the matter came to light during a coroner’s inquest convened last year, over five years following Jenkin’s disappearance.

Jenkin’s son claimed that on June 26, 2020, a day after the construction worker lodged the police report, the police registered the deceased’s death without investigating the cause, carrying out a DNA test, or even searching for her remaining bones.

He said that when he arrived in Penang on July 29, 2020, the police brought him, accompanied by several Australian embassy representatives, to the construction site where Jenkins’ remains were initially discovered.

Gregory immediately found several other personal belongings of the deceased and one more of her bones.

The deceased’s son claimed that on Aug 6 of the same year, he went to the project site by himself and discovered several more of Jenkin’s personal belongings and bones, whereby he informed the police who then arrived on the scene to register the discovery.

Gregory filed the civil action at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on June 29 this year.

However, the amended statement of claim was filed on Wednesday this week.

Earlier on May 12 this year, the Penang Coroner’s Court delivered an open verdict into the death of the deceased, who was known as Anna to her family and friends.

It was reported that South Australia’s Legislative Council member Frank Pangallo dismissed the Malaysian coroner court’s open judgment on Jenkins’ death, adding that he would push for another inquest in the state to determine the cause of her death.

In an interview with Malaysiakini last year, Gregory claimed he had to carry out his own investigation into the matter despite the case having had 11 investigating officers (IOs) over four years.

The deceased’s family also has a separate bid before the High Court (criminal jurisdiction) to revise the coroner court’s finding. - Mkini