ALOR STAR: Over the past one week, Mohd Anwar Md Desa, who runs a stall in the Sultan Abdul Halim Highway here has been wondering about the presence of a Myanmar couple and their three young children in the vicinity.
His curiosity about the family who were often seen in the vicinity, however, was met with a grim ending upon learning that the woman and her two children died in a gruesome murder, allegedly committed by her own husband.
"That's inhumane," said the 62-year-old who has been running the stall for the past four decades.
Recalling his encounters with the family, Anwar said the family had been wandering in the area about a week prior to the grisly murder.
"The couple has three children. The eldest was a 10-year-old girl and two young boys.
"I noticed that the family of five had been loitering on the overhead pedestrian bridge. I usually see them in the area from early morning, about 7am.
"I have no idea where they had come from. When it rains, they seek shelter in the abandoned building.
"They went missing for a couple of days before returning to this area. They did that several times and I believe they had been sleeping in the abandoned building," he said, while pointing at a four-storey dilapidated building next to his stall.
Anwar said the family had visited his stall several times to buy drinks and 'roti canai'.
"The husband did not talk much. The wife did say a few words, but they mostly kept things to themselves.
"Once, I spoke to the girl and asked her if she was attending school. She replied in fluent Bahasa Malaysia that she was not schooling," he said.
Anwar said he heard the couple were quarrelling once, but did not suspect anything amiss.
He had a shock of his life when he was informed on Monday that the woman's and her daughter's bodies had been found behind the building, which is an area frequented by drug addicts to get their fix.
"I dare not go anywhere at the scene. I am very devastated to learn about the grim ending to the woman and her children," he said.
Meanwhile, checks with the Rohingya community in Bukit Pinang, Kepala Batas, about 17km from the scene, showed that the family was not from the area.
"We have never seen them until we learnt that the husband was arrested at Masjid Al Hidayah on Monday evening," said a Myanmar national housewife who declined to be named.
Her neighbour, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also confirmed that the family was not from the area.
"I saw the video of the family that has gone viral on TikTok, but we do not recognise them. They were not from here," she said.
She added that the Rohingya community here is also in the dark about why the main suspect had come to the mosque with his five-year-old son, where he was detained by police on Monday evening.
It was reported that a 34-year-old man was detained following the discovery of the bodies of his 34-year-old wife and 10-year-old daughter in a drain, with slash wounds on their throats behind the abandoned building near the Sultan Abdul Halim Highway on Monday.
The body of a 2-year-old boy, believed to be the suspect's child, and the third victim in the same case, had been found in Pantai Leman, Kuala Kedah at noon yesterday.
Yesterday, Kedah deputy police chief Deputy Commissioner Adzli Abu Shah had said that the boy, who had similar injuries to the other victims, was found on the beach around noon.
He had added that the man tested positive for substance abuse involving three different drugs.