SUNGAI PETANI • Police have arrested a man and a woman in Kedah state after finding the body of a two-year-old boy sealed inside a cooler box in the room where they slept.
The horrific discovery was made after the woman sought help from a neighbour, cradling her injured four-year-old daughter and saying that her abusive boyfriend had killed her two-year-old son more than two weeks ago.
The little girl was rushed to Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital after police arrived at the Paya Nahu flats at about 2am yesterday. Reports say she had been beaten up and is in critical condition.
According to The Malay Mail Online news site, the 26-year-old woman told police that her son was murdered on Nov 9 and that her 34-year-old boyfriend had wrapped the boy's body in a comforter before stuffing it into a plastic box, which he kept inside their room. The box was filled with ice and sealed with tape.
Kuala Muda police chief Md Zukir Md Isa said: "We believe she and her companion had abused the children."
The couple had tested positive for amphetamines, he added.
Their neighbour, housewife Nor Khoshimah Johari, 26, told The Star newspaper that the woman had knocked on her door at about midnight yesterday.
"The mother was carrying her daughter and she looked distraught. There were bruises on both of them, and the injuries on the little girl looked very bad," she said. "I let her in and she told me about the physical abuse, and that she could not stand the man any more."
Ms Khoshimah then called the police.
She said the woman had also told her that her companion would lock her in the room whenever he went out. According to Ms Khoshimah, the man moved in a year ago, and the woman had moved in to live with him recently.
A 29-year-old lorry driver, who identified himself as Mohd Hisham, said he lived in the same flat as the couple, but is moving out now, The Star reported. "I am moving out. I do not want to be troubled by the man's sins as we do not know each other well," he told the newspaper.
"There was no foul smell in the house and I did not suspect anything amiss. All this comes as a shock," Mr Mohd Hisham said. He added that the cooler box belonged to him and had been missing for two weeks.
The couple have been remanded for seven days to facilitate investigations for murder and causing grievous hurt.
