As the family of marketing executive Chee Gaik Yap gave her a final send-off, six suspects were ordered to be remanded by a Sungai Petani sessions court in connection with her rape and murder.
Sessions Court Judge Azizah Mahmud issued yesterday a seven-day remand order on the suspects, believed to be workers of a recreation club here.
The six, aged between 20 and 40, arrived in the afternoon at the courthouse in a police truck. They were taken to the Kuala Muda police headquarters lock-up two hours later.
The six were picked up from the club on Monday night.
Gaik Yap, who was jogging near Taman Ria Jaya on Saturday evening, was found dead less than nine hours later.
The Universiti Utara Malaysia graduate was believed to have been trailed by her assailants, kidnapped, raped and killed elsewhere before her body was dumped near the housing estate.
The case is being investigated as rape and murder.
If convicted of murder, the suspects could face the death penalty. Rapists could be punished by a jail term of between five and 20 years, and in some cases whipped.
It was believed that some tissue paper containing semen had been found at the recreation club and inside an unidentified pick-up which was seized by the police.
Police have questioned several witnesses, including the victim’s boyfriend.
Gaik Yap’s family, meanwhile, was unhappy that a security guard who was informed of her disappearance did not act promptly to alert the police.
Her father Ah Sau, 49, said his younger daughter Gaik Choon was jogging some distance from Gaik Yap when she realised that she had gone missing.
“My daughter rushed to the guardhouse of a gated community when she saw some bloodstains on the ground. But the guard did not immediately call the police,” he said.
“The guard said the bloodstains could have been because someone had bled from an accident.
Relatives, friends, colleagues and politicians, including state MCA chief Datuk Beh Heng Seong and DAP deputy secretary-general Chong Eng, turned up for the funeral.
Gaik Yap was cremated at the Siamese temple crematorium in Sungai Pasir here.
Source: Malaysia theStar News Service
