However, these stories are all the more tragic when they involve innocent children.

Between 2020 and early 2022, 1,509 children in Malaysia were reported missing, with 1,424 eventually found. The others remain either missing or were found dead.

With the fates of these missing children still an ugly question mark, it is only natural that speculation is rife as to what could have possibly happened to them.

There have been several high-profile cases of Malaysian children disappearing over the decades, with several victims still not found to this day.

Here are just a few of those unsolved mysteries. Hopefully, the fates of these unfortunate souls will eventually be uncovered.

1. Tin Song Sheng (disappeared in 1996)

Born in 1989, Tin Song Sheng had just begun his primary school life when he became the centre of a nationwide search.

On Jan 12, 1996, after the school session was over, Tin waited outside SJKC Taman Rasah in Shah Alam, to take a bus home.

However, he was last spotted by witnesses walking away with an unidentified middle-aged Chinese woman, and then never seen again.

An extensive search was launched afterwards, with Orang Asli guides combing the nearby forests and shamans hired by the desperate family to locate the boy.

Unfortunately, nothing came out of it, with one report stating that he was seen begging on the streets in Pontian, Johor. He would have turned 33 this year.

2. Siti Zulaiha (disappeared in 1998)

At the age of six, young Siti Zulaiha of Mentakab, Pahang, was spending the day playing with her younger brother out in her home’s garden.

Their mother, Kamariyana Osman, had been watching them while doing housework, before excusing herself to use the toilet.

However, upon her return, Siti had disappeared from sight, with her infant son crying about how Siti had fallen from the tree.

Strangely enough, Siti was nowhere around the tree, or around the house, for that matter. The police were soon called but after two weeks of searching, the girl remained missing.

If she had been kidnapped, the last person to see her alive, her little brother, certainly did not see anything or anyone, so her final fate remains a mystery to this day.

3. Sharlinie Nashar (disappeared in 2008)

Just months after the infamous kidnapping and murder of young Nurin Jazlin Jazimin, another child from Petaling Jaya was spirited away and has not been seen since.

On the morning of Jan 9, the eight-year-old went to a playground just 200 metres from her home, accompanied by her sister.

Later that day, her sister returned home, reporting that she had lost track of Sharlinie; the family would eventually call the police after hours of fruitless searching.

There were fears that she had been kidnapped, with a motorcyclist having abducted and released a six-year-old girl just days before Sharlinie went missing.

Despite thousands of missing posters distributed, nothing concrete has ever surfaced regarding Sharlinie’s whereabouts.

4. Nisha Chandramohan (disappeared in 2010)

Nisha Chandramohan was just two years old when she left her grandmother’s home in Mentakab, Pahang, never to return.

Her mentally-ill aunt had taken her for a walk but when the former was found by neighbours wandering about at 10.00am, the little girl was nowhere to be found.

To complicate matters, the girl suffered from epilepsy and required daily medication to keep her seizures at bay.

The police were soon called, with a MIC team being dispatched, but ultimately, their search found nothing of Nisha.

Despite a RM10,000 reward for information and a promise not to pursue legal action against any possible kidnapper, Nisha remains missing.

5. Satishkumar Tamilvanan (disappeared in 2012)

Five-year-old Satishkumar was excited to follow his lorry driver father and his grandfather to work on the morning of Aug 8.

In the afternoon, when his grandfather and his father stopped at a Bukit Mertajam food court, the young boy asked his father for money to buy sweets.

After this, they all went on their way but unfortunately, both the father and the grandfather assumed the other was watching over the boy.

Unfortunately, when the two men finally met up to leave, they discovered that Satishkumar was actually with neither of them.

A frantic search followed, with the authorities being called in to assist, but ultimately, the boy remains missing to this day.