Relatives of Anna Jenkins “disgusted” by coroner’s open verdict

An Adelaide family has spent more than $300,000, travelled 80,000km and interviewed more than 1000 people seeking answers. Now a coroner says there are none.

The Adelaide family of suspected murder victim Anna Jenkins has lashed out at Malaysian authorities following a failed coronial inquest in Penang.

The family, which ran their own $300,000 three-year investigation to find the Adelaide woman’s remains after her disappearance in 2017, were devastated as the court delivered findings in on Friday afternoon.

The family had hoped for a relaunched investigation. But the Coroner’s court failed to determine even if a crime had been committed, after hearing evidence from 30 witnesses, including 14 police officers.

Speaking from Penang, Mrs Jenkins’ son Greg said the family was “in shock” and “disgusted and disappointed” and likened the bungled investigation to the movie Forrest Gump.

“We were disrespected by the coroner who clearly stated in the coronial inquest in black and white that the investigation officers didn’t do any investigation into mum’s death,’’ he said.

“The Coroner stated that there wasn’t enough evidence to rule out anything.

“Instead, she decided to absolve responsibility for herself, absolve responsibility for the police and close this as an open verdict.”

Helped by SA Best MLC Frank Pangallo, the family had to lobby hard for an inquest, and said the findings were “an insult to the family”.

Mr Pangallo will now lobby the SA Coroner to launch an investigation, and the family may appeal in Malaysia.

“A crime has gone unpunished and uninvestigated. There is a killer on the lose in Malaysia,” Mr Pangallo said speaking from Penang.

Malaysian police bungled the case so badly — after declaring it in 2017 a missing persons incident – that Greg investigated and eventually found her body in order to launch the Coronial inquest.

In an extraordinary investigation, which spanned 34 visits to the country, Greg finally found remains in August 2020.

He spent more than $300,000, travelled 80,000km in Malaysia, interviewed more than 1000 people and distributed 12,500 flyers and banners with a reward seeking information in the quest for justice.

Annapuranee Jenkins who disappeared in Malaysia – with son Greg, and daughter Jennifer. Pictured supplied, by Greg Jenkins

Malaysian-born Mrs Jenkins, then 65, disappeared on December 13, 2017 while on a regular holiday with her husband Frank to visit her mother who is in an aged care home in Penang.

She had been to the dentist and caught an Uber to go to the aged care home but the driver claims she asked to be let out en route and was never seen again.

When worried family members reported her missing, Malaysian police told the family she had “a right to disappear”, was “involved with drugs” and could survive in the jungle on bananas.

But a photo of bones, which had been discovered then secretly reburied on the site of a luxury villa development, were later identified by DNA to be Mrs Jenkins’.