Jan 15, 2009
Search for missing Granny
Arrival records show 73-year-old grandma had returned on Sunday
By Carolyn Quek |
| | Madam Voon Choot Yin, who has mild dementia and suffers from depression, is said to have returned to Singapore on her own without her passport and bus ticket. -- ST PHOTO: STEPHANIE YEOW |
A 73-YEAR-OLD Singapore grandmother who went missing while on a family holiday in Genting Highlands triggered a frantic search for her there. But her family says the immigration authorities' arrival records indicate that she had somehow made her way back here on Sunday - without her bus ticket or her passport and with less than $20 on her.
The twist to the tale: Madam Voon Choot Yin, who has mild dementia and suffers from depression, is still missing - right here on home turf. The family's desperate search for her is now trained on Toa Payoh, where she lived by herself before moving in with her son three months ago, when her memory started failing.
She had arrived at the popular Malaysian hill resort last Thursday with her son, his wife, their two grown-up daughters and his mother-in-law. The family checked into the First World Hotel.
The last time they saw the bespectacled grandmother was the following day, when they visited the casino.
Three members of the family returned to Singapore last Saturday. Two of them - Madam Voon's granddaughter, Ms Susan Koh, 29, and her mother, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Koh - stayed behind in case she showed up there.
The family said it got news on Tuesday from the Singapore High Commission in Kuala Lumpur that Madam Voon had returned to Singapore on Sunday.
When contacted, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) would only say that it is possible, under special circumstances, for Singapore citizens to re-enter the country without travel documents.
'Singapore citizens have the right of entry into Singapore. The ICA will first establish the citizenship status of the person and if we are satisfied he or she has not lost the status, we will accord the necessary clearance for entry,' said an ICA spokesman.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also declined to say much, but said it was helping the family on the matter.
Yesterday, Ms Koh and her mother returned home.
Ms Koh said all Madam Voon had on her was a shoulder bag with less than $20 in it, her senior citizens' ez-link card and what she was wearing - a black blouse, dark pants and sandals.
Mrs Koh said she, her mother and her husband were in the casino with Madam Voon last Friday. The older woman had a go at the jackpot machines. When Mrs Koh, a 54-year-old housewife, wanted to use the washroom at about 3pm, she offered to take Madam Voon as well, but the elderly woman said she did not need to go.
When Mrs Koh returned, however, her husband said his mother had gone to the washroom. But Madam Voon was in neither of the casino's two female toilets.
The family alerted the resort management, lodged a report with the Malaysian police and turned to the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) for help. They also combed the resort. The family contacted the Foreign Ministry here last Saturday.
The MCA told The Straits Times that since the incident made the Malaysian newspapers yesterday, three people had called to say they had seen Madam Voon.
A spokesman said two claimed they saw a woman matching the description walking along a road from Genting Highlands towards the nearby town of Bukit Tinggi last Friday at 5pm; another caller said she boarded a Bukit Tinggi-to-Kuala Lumpur bus on Sunday morning.
The family has lodged a missing person's report with the police here.
Ms Koh said: 'It's been a nightmare. All I want is for my grandma to be home safe.'