PETALING JAYA: The family of a woman who was murdered by a man claiming to be her boyfriend has denied she was in any sort of relationship with the suspect.
D. Tharani’s uncle - who only wished to be known as Manimaran, said his niece had been trying to avoid the suspect as he may have been stalking her at their workplace.
Manimaran said Tharani must have made up a story about her getting married to someone to ward off the suspect’s advances.
"She must have made up the story of her getting married to someone...as far as we know marriage was the last thing on her mind.
“In fact the word marriage itself is enough to put her off.”
Manimaran, who is from Ara Damansara, said the family had no idea of the man's existence and none of them had met him prior to yesterday.
"If indeed Tharani and the boy were in a relationship, surely she would have shared the news with her sisters at the very least.
"I even asked my nephew, who she shares everything with, but he too said that he doesn't know anything about her relationship with this man.
“As far as we know, the suspect is just a colleague from the new work place she joined," he said when met outside the UMMC mortuary today.
It was reported that Tharani was killed by a man claiming to be her boyfriend at the parking lot of a hypermarket in Kota Damansara.
The suspect who worked in the same place as the victim since November had earlier taken her to the hypermarket for lunch and bought a few household items including a vegetable knife.
However, it is learnt that as they were returning to the victim’s car, she told him that she intended to marry another man.
The news caused the man to grab the kitchen knife they had just bought and he stabbed her with it.
He then drove his car with the deceased to the Damansara police station and turned himself in.
Tharani, 35, was the youngest of three girls in her family.
"We are still shocked over her death," Manimaran said.
He said Tharani’s two elder sisters move out after getting married and the deceased used to live alone with her parents in Bandar Baru Selayang.
Asked if her demeanour had changed of late, he said Tharani had become more reserved and talked less at home in the last coupld of months.
"She would come home from work, take her shower and enter her room. Her parents didn't suspect anything wrong because they thought she was just too tired after work," Manimaran said.
When asked if her parents had planned for a marriage, he said no.
Meanwhile, District police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Zani Che Din said the 37-year old suspect has been remanded for seven days.
Zaini said the suspect had claimed that he was in a relationship with the victim since November but investigations were ongoing.
Police are expected to review the hypermarkets CCTV recordings as part of their investigations.