KENINGAU: Police have classified the death of a 20-year-old college student here on Monday morning as murder.
District police chief Deputy Superintendent Douglas Nyeging Taong said the autopsy report showed that there were two stab wounds on the body of Sairah Fitri Tifanus who was found dead at the District Office woman’s toilet on Monday morning.
Douglas said at a press conference here yesterday that here were also bruises on the cheeks, lips, chin, ears, arm and thigh of the body, possibly caused by a blunt object.
“There is also a small puncture injury in the right chest, likely caused by a sharp object,” he added.
Douglas said no arrest had been made and police with the help from Kepayan police headquarters did not find any sharp objects at the scene, including the surrounding of the building.
He said that about 9.45am on Monday, police received a phone call from the District Office staff here that a woman was found lying in pool of blood in the woman’s toilet on the second floor of District Office in the Keningau Secretariat building.
Acting on the information, a police team went to the scene and found the woman with blood on the face and body lying on the floor of the toilet.
“The victim is a local residing in Kampung Durok here. She is a student of Saito College in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
“Further police investigation revealed that the victim was undergoing practical training at the District Office (Licensing Division) since January 12 until March 6 this year,” he said, adding the victim’s body was sent to the Keningau hospital and later to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu for post-mortem.
He said several witnesses, including the victim’s family, had given their statements to the police.
Witnesses are urged to come forward to help police investigate the case under Section 302 of the Penal Code which carries the death sentence by hanging on conviction.
Sabah CID chief Datuk Salehhudin Abdul Rahman said that police have no leads on a suspect, but were investigating all possible angles, including claims that the girl was fighting against an arranged marriage.
“It is unclear what has happened as we found no weapon at the scene. We have also not made any arrests yet,” he said.
According to early investigations, Sairah had come into work at 8am as usual on Monday. She excused herself to go to the washroom about 8.30am and did not return.
When another employee tried to enter the bathroom, she found it locked and had to get security personnel to open it before discovering the victim’s body.
Police sources also said that friends of the victim said she had been under stress lately from family pressure to marry a family friend.
Meanwhile, Douglas suggested that every government department here install CCTV. He said there was no CCTV at the Keningau Secretariat building and this would make it difficult for the police to trace the suspect.
“I have talked to the District Officer that every state and federal government office here should install CCTV as a security measure and prevent recurrence of such incidents,” he said.
Douglas also gave a stern warning to users of social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp to stop spreading unconfirmed information and photos of this case because it will disturb and jeopardize the police investigations.
“Their actions can also affect the family members of the victim and legal action may be taken against them (for spreading of false news),” he said, adding the information spread in WhatsApp about the case was fake.