According to a report in Adelaide Now, the family is distressed over “miscommunication” between them and the Australian consulate, and also “incorrect” Malaysian media reports.
The report quoted Annapuranee’s daughter Jen Bowen as saying she and her brother had made several trips to Penang and had engaged the services of private security firm Panoptic Solutions.
Acording to its website, Panoptic Solutions provides executive level security, medical/paramedical and travel concierge services within Australasia and around the world
Both Malaysian police and the private investigators are now searching for Annapuranee who vanished on Dec 13 while visiting Penang with her husband of 40 years, Frank Bowen.
Jen Bowen, 39, said her brother also met with the high commissioner of Australia in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
“They’ve agreed to send a letter to Malaysia police on what could be done to access CCTV. They have offered to be more of assistance and try to contact Malaysia police.
“We’re really grateful that they’ve seen the urgency of my mum being missing,” The Adelaide Now report quoted her as saying.
She claimed that although the Australian consulate had been in contact with local police up to three times a week, the family had not been notified of any updates.
“It has been a massive miscommunication all around,” she was quoted as saying.
According to the report, Malaysian media had reported Malaysian police as saying they were trying to unlock Annapuranee’s mobile phone.
Annapuranee’s daughter said the 65-year-old’s smartphone, which was accidentally left at the hotel before she went to a dental appointment, had always been unlocked and accessible.
She said a news article also reported that Annapuranee had taken her luggage and toiletries when she left the hotel she and her husband were staying at.
“I have my mother’s phone here (in Adelaide). Her toothbrush was still at the hotel, she doesn’t wear makeup … the only thing would have been deodorant because Malaysia is so hot,” the report quoted Bowen as saying.
Bowen said her mother was only carrying her handbag and a shopping bag with her when she took a Uber ride from the dentist to aged care home Little Sisters of Poor.
Malaysian media had earlier quoted Penang’s Northeast district police chief ACP Anuar Omar as saying Annapuranee was last seen at the Ramakrishna Ashram on Scotland Road where she was last dropped off by a Uber driver on Dec 13.
Anuar said Annapuranee had taken a Uber ride to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a home for the aged at Batu Lanchang Lane, but asked the driver to drop her off at the ashram, some 4km away from her intended destination. Prior to that, she was at a dentist on Burma Road, Pulau Tikus.