Her son, Greg, said a separate inquest into his mother’s death will likely be held by the coroner’s court in Adelaide, as the cause of death had yet to be ascertained.
“The Malaysian inquest is a bit of a charade. The inquest officer had to postpone the inquest as there were enormous gaps in the probe into my mother’s disappearance as the testifying officers were not ready,” he told FMT.
According to Greg, the separate inquest was also necessary as the family needed a cause of death to be determined before being allowed to give Anna a proper send-off and burial.
“Under the law in Australia, an inquest to determine the cause of death was necessary before a person who had died under mysterious circumstances could be buried,” he said.
In April, the family received 16 bone fragments from the Malaysian police.
Greg said his mother’s bones were sent to a government forensic agency for DNA matching and that it had been confirmed as a match. However, there were no leads on how Anna was killed.
Anna, 65, disappeared in Penang after an Uber ride in 2017, with her remains discovered at a construction site in Batu Gantong three years later.
“My biggest question to the Malaysian police is where are the other 188 bones? Why won’t they search the construction site further?
“The remains of three persons, including that of my mother, were found there. So why isn’t this construction site marked a crime scene today?” Greg said.
He added that Malaysian police had informed the family that there was a body of an adult male and a child on the same site where Anna’s body was found.
The inquest had applied to vacate the April 1 date, as police were now pursuing new leads that had surfaced and to allow investigation officers more time to study the case.
The inquest, which last sat on March 31, has seen seven witnesses, with 10 more expected to testify. Proceedings were supposed to take place this week from June 7 to 10 but was further postponed to July 18 to 22.
The sessions court and the police have been contacted for comment.