6-year-old girl missing at Johor festival found safe in Selangor budget hotel

A six-year-old girl who was reported lost by her parents on July 20 at a festival in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, has been found safe in a budget hotel in Selangor, Malaysian police said.

A 31-year-old man who was found in the same room as the minor was arrested at the hotel.

The man is suspected of violating Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act.

The girl was found early in the morning on July 23, said Johor police chief M. Kumar at a press conference on the same day.

She was found in Batang Kali, Selangor, at around 4.45am and has been taken to hospital for health checks, he added. Her family has been informed of the discovery.

The suspect was taken to a Johor court where the police sought a remand order for him. He was wearing a T-shirt from the Bon Odori Japanese food festival, where the girl’s family has a stall. A car he used has also been confiscated.

Mr Kumar said the police are investigating if the girl was touched in a non-permissible way and that the authorities would have a more conclusive idea after the hospital releases its medical report. 

The girl was reported lost at around 8.30pm on July 20, after her mother lost sight of her while manning a stall at the Bon Odori festival in Eco Galleria, less than 15km away from the Second Link’s Sultan Abu Bakar Complex immigration checkpoint.

On July 22, two other men and two women aged between 28 and 55 were arrested in Iskandar Puteri to assist with investigations. They are suspected of abduction and unlawful confinement, which carries a prison term of up to seven years and possible fine, the police said.

All five Malaysian suspects have no relation to the girl, Mr Kumar added.

The motive for the abduction is still in question, and the girl’s family did not receive any calls demanding ransom payments.

Her disappearance was widely discussed in Johor, and netizens shared images of her at the festival in a bid to locate the girl. Numerous parties had offered five-figure cash rewards for information on the girl. 

Johor Chief Minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi, who earlier urged the public to share leads with the authorities, expressed his thanks and appreciation towards the police and public for their roles in the girl’s rescue.

Her family was distraught at her disappearance, Malaysia media reported. Her mother visited the site where she was last spotted each day that she was missing, and pleaded with netizens to avoid spreading false information that would hamper investigations.

Mr Kumar said the girl was found, thanks to a combination of information from the public and police work.

The police had reviewed security camera footage from shop owners that captured images from some streets close to the Eco Galleria mall in Iskandar Puteri over the weekend.

He praised local media for not interfering with the police investigations over the nearly 60 hours that she was missing.