Police cordoning off the jetty where the body of Eric was allegedly dumped. — Photo by Roy Emmor
KUCHING (March 13): The missing four-year-old, Eric Chang Wei Jie, is most likely to have been murdered and his body dumped into the Sarawak River at Muara Tebas.
Kuching district police chief in a statement today said the police have reclassified the case from Section 31(1) of the Child Act 2001 to Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.
“Two of the suspects, the caretaker and her husband, will be further remanded to assist in the investigation,” he added.
Ahsmon further said the police will be leading the search-and-rescue operation in the Muara Tebas area, which began earlier this evening, together with the Marine Police, Fire and Rescue Department and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.
“We also urge the public not to speculate on the incident, as this is still an ongoing investigation,” said Ahsmon.
The search-and-rescue operation will continue early tomorrow morning.
The caretaker, who was arrested on March 9, confessed to the police today that she knew what transpired to Eric.
Both the caretaker and her husband were also brought to the Muara Tebas jetty by the police.
Eric was reported missing by his mother on March 7 at the Bintawa police station at 7.42pm after claiming the child had went missing on the same day at 9am.
On March 11, the district police here said four suspects comprising of Eric’s parents, the caretaker and her husband were arrested for investigation under Section 31(1) of the Child Act for the ill-treatment, neglect, abandonment or exposure of children.
The four were also brought to the Magistrate’s Court on Saturday, where a remand order until March 16 was approved for police investigations.
It was also revealed by the police that all four suspects tested positive for drugs and had a total of 17 criminal records to their names for drug-related offences, property crimes and commercial crimes.