Headless bodies in Penang fuel fears of serial killer on the loose

On Thursday, a woman was found in Penang brutally murdered and her body was without a head and legs. -- PHOTO: THE STAR
On Thursday, a woman was found in Penang brutally murdered and her body was without a head and legs. -- PHOTO: THE STAR

GEORGE TOWN (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The discovery of two headless female bodies in Penang in the space of three days has raised fears of a serial killer on the loose.

There is also talk that the two cases are connected to the gruesome murders of 17 Myanmar men on the mainland this year.

In some cases, the victims had their throats slit and their bodies dumped in dark alleys or by the roadside.

Penang police chief Senior Deputy Comm Datuk Wira Abdul Rahim Hanafi, however, considered the latest incident, involving a brutally murdered woman believed to be a foreigner, to be an isolated case.

He declined to comment on talk of a serial killer.

"Please don't speculate," he said after attending a community policing programme in Pulau Aman on Friday.

The torso and arms of a woman were found stuffed in a suitcase in Jalan Kebun Bunga on Thursday.

SDCP Abdul Rahim described it as the "most gruesome case" Penang police had seen this year.

On Friday, police recovered a pair of mutilated legs at the Pulau Burung landfill in Nibong Tebal on the mainland, 65km from where the torso and hands were found on the island.

SDCP Abdul Rahim said the discovery could be linked to the murdered woman in Jalan Kebun Bunga.

"We saw a bloated right leg first. Then the left leg was found a few metres away 30 minutes later," he said, adding that police rushed to the scene after receiving a tip-off from the public at noon.

The legs have been sent to the Penang Hospital for DNA analysis.

SDCP Abdul Rahim said they strongly believed the woman was a foreigner as a check with the National Registration Department showed that the fingerprints did not match any in its database.

"If you happen to see anything that resembles a human skull and come across an unbearable stench, please alert the police. We could not identify the victim based on fingerprints," he added.

Police said the case of the headless body of an Indonesian woman, identified as Halimahtusakdiah, 33, from north Sumatra, found by fishermen on Tuesday has been classified as sudden death following a post-mortem.

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