Gold Coast security firm Panoptic Solutions in search for missing Aussie in Malaysia
UPDATED: A Gold Coast private security team member helping in the hunt for an Australian woman missing in Malaysia says she hasn’t touched her bank accounts.
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UPDATED: A Gold Coast private security team member helping in the hunt for an Australian woman missing in Malaysia says she hasn’t touched her bank accounts.
Panoptic Solutions operations manager Ben Hosking, coordinating the search plan from the Gold Coast whilst his colleague Troy Claydon is on the ground in Malaysia, said all scenarios for her disappearance remained on the table.
Annapuranee Jenkins, 65, has not been seen since she got out of an Uber after leaving a dental appointment in Penang, Malaysia on December 13.
Mr Hosking said she didn’t have her passport or phone with her but was believed to have a bank card or cards and her accounts had not been touched.
“She had her bank cards but hasn’t accessed them. That is why you could suspect foul play may have occurred because she hasn’t touched any of those accounts,” he said yesterday.
Mr Claydon was helping her son in Penang widen the search area yesterday and applying for approval required locally to parade a mannequin dressed as Mrs Jenkins in hope of sparking memories of anyone who might have seen her.
Mr Hosking said they were treating the operation as a missing person inquiry given the length of time since she was last seen.
EARLIER: A CRACK squad of Gold Coast ex-military and police are leading an international hunt for an Australian woman who mysteriously “vanished” holidaying in Malaysia.
The desperate Brisbane-based son of missing South Australian Annapuranee “Anna” Jenkins has hired private high-end security firm Panoptic Solutions in a bid to track her down.
Mrs Jenkins, aged in her mid-60s, was on holiday with her Vietnam veteran husband Frank Jenkins, 70, in Penang, Malaysia, when she disappeared on December 13.
She had gone alone to a dental appointment before catching an Uber — seemingly en route to visit her mother in a Penang rest home. But a local police chief has told local media her driver dropped her 4km from the intended destination at her request.
She has not been seen since, local media have reported.
Panoptic Solutions founder Troy Claydon has been in Penang for a week, leading the family’s private search and told the Gold Coast Bulletin by all accounts she was of completely sound mind.
Mr Claydon said there was no known rift in the family. “It’s an odd case.”
The circumstances of her last known movements were “unusual”, Mr Claydon said, adding she didn’t have her passport or bank cards and where she allegedly asked to be dropped off was an “odd location”.
“There is CCTV footage of the driver departing without her but no other footage.
“There are CCTV cameras along the main road but the local police didn’t check them in time and they have now been wiped over.”
Panoptic operations manager Ben Hosking, a former search and rescue assistant co-ordinator for the Northern Territory police, is helping co-ordinate the hunt in Penang from the Gold Coast.
A photo supplied by Panoptic from CCTV shows her leaving the Jen Hotel where she and Frank were staying on the day of her disappearance, while he looks on in the background.
Local media reported she asked her Uber driver to drop her at Jalan Scotland instead of her actual destination, the Little Sisters of the Poor Home in Batu Lanchang.
The place she was last seen when dropped off on Scotland Rd is a busy intersection but it is unclear why she asked to be let out where she did.
Mr Claydon said the dentist and Uber driver had both been spoken to and their stories appeared to “check out”.
The driver had taken them on the route where he drove her and was “distraught” about the disappearance.
Mr Claydon said they remained open to all scenarios — including her having had some sort of medical episode through to being the victim of foul play or an abduction.
“There is potential she has got into another vehicle, whether forcibly or voluntarily.
“We know she doesn’t have her passport, doesn’t have a mobile phone, doesn’t seem to have any cards. It’s obviously quite concerning.
“It is frustrating for everyone and you have to feel for the family.”
The missing woman’s son, who said he knew Panoptic team members via a mutual military connection, said he hired them in the hope of a breakthrough.
“We were struggling to get any more information from authorities or anyone over here so it’s a bit of a desperate plea,” the son said.
“But we are still fairly positive, we’re operating on the basis no news is good news.”
In their bid to trace where she might have ended up, Mr Claydon said they had walked the route from where she was dropped to the rest home. Today, they went back and were catching buses departing from the area to track those routes.
They have had a mannequin with them dressed in similar clothes to what she was wearing, hoping it might jog the memory of anyone who might have seen her.
Mrs Jenkins was the primary caregiver for her husband Frank, who suffers from dementia and has since returned to Australia.
The couple, who have been married for 40 years, arrived in Penang on December 5 to visit Mrs Jenkin’s 101-year-old mother, who was sick.
Mr Jenkins said his wife had never gone missing before but in the past 12 months had displayed signs of mental health issues.
He said Mrs Jenkins began believing that people were following her and were out to get her and the family believed she may have gone into hiding.
“We think she might be paranoid about someone tailing her in a car or walking,” he said.
“She’s very religious and she stops out the front of people’s houses and says prayers and some people don’t like that, naturally.
“She thought that everyone was against her.”
Mr Jenkins said the family was extremely worried about Mrs Jenkins and were taking it in turns to travel to Penang to continue to look for her.
“We looked around the churches and hospitals and so forth,” he said.
“And then when I went back (to Australia) my son went over and he stayed there for a week and he went everywhere and dropped flyers and then he came back and then my daughter Jen did the same thing and dropped the signs everywhere and then … (my son) went over again.”
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade statement said it was providing consular assistance in accordance with the Consular Services Charter to “the family of an Australian woman reported missing in Malaysia”.
“Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further comment.”
Private security firm for the stars
Members of private security firm Panoptic Solutions tend not to want to see their name up in lights.
The Gold Coast-based company of former military and police veterans offers a normally discreet personal protection service to A-listers and high net worth individuals.
Past clients include boxing legend Manny Pacquiao — Panoptic operatives shadowed him 24-hours a day during his Brisbane visit last year to fight Jeff Horn. Their client rosters has also seen them look after Microsoft executives, television personalities and Department of Defence staff.
You won’t ready about that anywhere.
But as Panoptic operations manager Ben Hosking told the Gold Coast Bulletin today it was taking the unusual step of highlighting its latest case — hunting for the mysterious disappearance of Australian woman Annapuranee Jenkins — because they needed all the exposure they could get.
“With backgrounds in specialist law enforcement and Australian Defence Force personnel our policy is to maintain discreet service provision.
“However, this situation carries enough gravity and we feel that it could be the right thing to do in this instance and break our silence.”
Panoptic’s charge out rate for its staff — who also have paramedic training — is $1000-2000 a day.
It was started in 2011 by former Australian Defence Force member Troy Claydon. He had 14 years military experience plus five years in war-torn Iraq as a private security contractor. He returned to the Gold Coast in 2009 and signed up for the Queensland Ambulance Service to train as a paramedic.
He started Panoptic with the aim of offering a bodyguard service by people with high-level paramedic skills.
“If something goes wrong, whether you’re injured or whatever, the first person people look to are the bodyguards,” he told the Bulletin in 2016.
“My plan was always to try and put those two services together — the medical and the security. They go so well together.”
Who is Annapuranee Jenkins?
ANNAPURANEE Jenkins, who goes by Anna or Ranee, was born in Malaysia but immigrated to Australia after marrying Frank Jenkins decades ago.
Mr Jenkins, a veteran of the Vietnam War, is an ex-Australian Defence Force member of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). They met in the 1970s while he was stationed at Penang’s RAAF Butterworth.
Mrs Jenkins, in her mid-60s, still travels to Penang four to five times a year to visit her
101-year-old mum who lives there. She has a Brisbane-based son and daughter in South Australia, and two grandsons aged five and 11.
She is the primary caregiver for Frank who has been suffering from dementia.
Her son described her as a compassionate mother and wife who helped the homeless and refugees in South Australia, whom she regularly cooked for.
Originally published as Gold Coast security firm Panoptic Solutions in search for missing Aussie in Malaysia
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