IT was a shocking find for residents of Kampung Lembah Jaya Utara in Ampang yesterday.
Just metres away from their houses, in some bushes by the roadside, a dead girl was discovered with close to 80 per cent of her body burned.
Her face was beyond recognition.
"It was about 1.30pm when I heard a commotion outside my neighbour's house two doors away," said housewife Siti Fatimah Harun.
"There were a lot of people gathering outside.
"I thought someone had been robbed, but then I saw a dead body near the bushes in front of my neighbour's house. I freaked out!"
Snatch the cases were common for residents there, but to discover a dead girl's body in an area so close to home was just astonishing.
"A resident had spotted the body and contacted the police," Siti Fatimah told The Malay Mail.
"Two police officers who happened to be patrolling the neighborhood were informed."
Residents could not fathom how or why the body, believed to be that of a teenage girl, had ended up in front of their houses.
"Most of the clothes on the body were burnt off... the body was almost naked. It was such a horrifying sight," Siti Fatimah recalled.
Ampang Jaya police chief ACP Amiruddin Jamaluddin, who was at the scene, said the girl was believed to be between 13 and 15 years, according to the forensic team.
"The body was 80 per cent burnt and unrecognisable," he said, adding police were still trying to establish key factors of the case.
"We believe she had been murdered elsewhere and then dumped here, but there is also a slight chance the body was burned here itself."
He said police scoured the area for evidence and clues but their three hour search yielded nothing.
"We couldn't find anything, no identity card... nothing."
With the body dumped so close to homes, Amiruddin hoped some of the residents could shed light on the case.
"We have been interviewing residents, if they had seen any suspicious characters. So far, only one said he heard a noise like someone was walking past his house, but didn't see anyone when he looked out."
The resident also heard motorcycles passing by the area about 3.30am yesterday which was unusual as the neighbourhood was always quiet in the wee hours.
There was also a sewage plant at the neighborhood. The charred body was found several metres away.
"Our officers searched the plant but found nothing incriminating," said Amiruddin, adding police were also going through the area's missing persons reports to identify the victim.
The remains were sent to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital for a post-mortem to determine the victim's time of death.
The case was classi ffied under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.
