KUALA LUMPUR • The mother of a three-year-old girl and a seven-month-old boy has been arrested after the children's bodies were found stuffed into plastic containers in a case the Kuala Lumpur police are investigating as a triple murder.
The woman's estranged husband and father of the children, Mr Cheah Hing Soon, 34, was also found dead in the master bedroom of their apartment in Taman Sri Sinar, Segambut, on Monday afternoon.
The Star newspaper reported that Cheah Kai Sze and her brother Kai Wen had been put in separate plastic containers, which were then wrapped in large plastic bags.
KL police chief commissioner Amar Singh said police had found no signs of a break-in, although the unit was in a mess.
"Based on the condition of the bodies, we believe they have been dead for more than 48 hours," he said on Monday.
Sentul assistant police commissioner R. Munusamy, who had been on the scene at the apartment, told The Star that the victims had no obvious injuries and the bodies had been sent to Kuala Lumpur Hospital for a post-mortem.
He said police received a report from the 35-year-old mother at about 12.15pm on Monday.
"When police arrived, there was a strong odour of joss sticks," Mr Munusamy said.
"Perhaps it was from a Taoist priest whom she had called to perform some prayers before we arrived," he said, adding that the unemployed woman had called her father-in-law and the priest before contacting the police.
The woman told police she was separated from her husband but visited the unit every day from a different block of the same apartment building where she lived.
"She also claimed she had stayed over at the apartment the night before," Mr Munusamy told The Star.
A neighbour said the children were not around when he last saw the couple last Saturday afternoon, adding that he had not seen the two children for a while.
When he asked their mother where they were, she told him they were staying with their maternal grandmother, The Star reported.
The neighbour said Mr Cheah's father paid the rent for the couple's apartment.
He also said the couple would ask neighbours for small amounts of money, of up to RM30 (S$9.90).
Mr Munusamy said that the couple had two other sons, aged six and eight, who lived with her father-in-law nearby.
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
