In a report involving child tragedy, the Star Online highlighted that the half-naked body of a girl, believed to be between 11 and 13, was found floating in a water retention pond. She was found only with her top on and with a piece of cloth around her neck, raising again the spectre of the 2007 Nurin Jazlin case. “We have classified the case under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder,” Sentul OCPD Asst Comm Zakaria Pagan said yesterday. He said police were waiting for the post-mortem results, expected today, to determine the girl’s identity and if she was sexually assaulted.

The body was found by three Kuala Lumpur City Hall workers when they went to the pond at Lorong Gurney, off Jalan Semarak, here, to collect garbage at about 11.30am yesterday. It was pulled out with the help of City Hall’s search and rescue unit. ACP Zakaria said initial investigations revealed that the girl was probably strangled first before her body was dumped in the pond. He said the girl’s body is believed to have been dumped 24 hours before the discovery. There were no other signs of bruises or injuries on the body.

ACP Zakaria said police could not determine if the girl was sexually assaulted because the body was covered with mud. Police have urged those who had missing daughters to come forward. “There has been no missing persons report over in the past 24 hours in the Sentul district,” he said. Nine-year-old Nurin was abducted by an unknown man on Aug 20, 2007. Her brutalized body was found stuffed in a bag on Sept 16.

Another girl, Sharlinie Mohd Nashar, five, went missing from her Taman Medan home on Jan 9, 2008. She has not been found since.