Every Sunday since that fateful day in 2006 when his daughter was murdered, Chee Ah Sau would head for the police station to get updates on investigations into her death.
No distance was too far for the 58-year-old construction worker from Sungai Petani, Kedah, as he spends his only day off, year after year, looking for answers and clues to her rape and murder. And he became a familiar sight at the Kuala Muda district police station.
He would also ride his motorcycle to Alor Star, almost 70km away, to talk to the Kedah police chief at the state police headquarters about his daughter's case.
"No, it is not too far (to travel by motorcycle)... for my daughter, the distance is short,” Ah Sau told The Malaysian Insider recently.
Ah Sau also went to the Cinta Sayang Club, in Sungai Petani, where his daughter Chee Gaik Yap, 25, was jogging before she was kidnapped and killed, with hopes of finding clues.
"I only visited the police three or four times a month, and mostly I went to the district police headquarters here in Sungai Petani.
"I did that until the police caught the suspect two years ago," he said.
Gaik Yap, 25, a marketing executive, had gone for an evening jog with one of her sisters at the Cinta Sayang Club on January 14, 2006 when she disappeared.
Her semi-nude body with multiple stab wounds was found in Taman Ria Jaya near the club in the wee hours the next day.
While the killing was being investigated, a suspect wanted for the murder left Malaysia for Perth, Australia. The police reportedly watched all entry points into the country for the man, who is the son of a businessman with the honorific Datuk.
Finally on January 17, 2012, the suspect, Shahril Jaafar, 33, was caught by police at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. He was charged with Gaik Yap's murder two weeks later.
But Ah Sau’s hopes for justice was short-lived. On June 25 last year, Shahril was acquitted and discharged by the Alor Star High Court without his defence called.
The court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case, as there was no clear evidence to implicate Shahril in the murder.
Distraught by the court's decision, Ah Sau tried to jump off the balcony of the two-storey court complex, shocking pressmen, who managed to grab him in time.
"I really thought of jumping off the building... of ending my life. I just felt empty when I heard that the suspect was going free.
"I believed that everything was over, that it was the end... my child will never get the justice she deserved," he said.
The press went to town with news of the acquittal and Ah Sau’s suicide attempt. Foreign media from Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China also picked up the news.
Despite the setback, Ah Sau vowed to carry on with his quest for justice, no matter how long it took. Days after the acquittal, he begged the late Karpal Singh for help.
Within a week, rallies were held in Sungai Petani and Penang to demand justice for Gaik Yap and to collect thousands of signatures for a petition urging the court to order a retrial.
In January this year, hundreds of people attended a gathering at Wat Siam, the Siamese temple in Sungai Petani where Gaik Yap's cremated remains were enshrined, in a show of support for Ah Sau.
Ah Sau also made a trip to Parliament in June this year with Bakar Arang assemblyman Simon Ooi Tze Min and Sidam assemblyman Dr Robert Ling to highlight his daugher’s case. Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin was tabling a motion in the House on Gaik Yap's case at the sitting.
"That was a new experience for me... going to the Parliament house, wearing a suit," said the soft-spoken Ah Sau.
Asked if he took all the trouble because Gaik Yap – his third child of six who took after him in height and looks – had been his favourite, he said all his children were the same to him.
"It isn't like that. I love them all equally. Gaik Yap was a good girl. She helped around the house and she studied well.
"She was the only one among her siblings who went to university. She attended UUM (Universiti Utara Malaysia).
"There was no rivalry among the siblings. They all got along well," he said.
On June 26 this year, the Court of Appeal heard Gaik Yap's case. On October 13, the bench, led by Justice Linton Albert, unanimously set aside Shahril's acquittal, and ordered him to be remanded immediately for a retrial.
Six days later, Shahril was produced at the Alor Star High Court, which fixed December 28 to 31 for the trial.
"I cannot say whether there is hope or not. It all depends on the court," said Ah Sau.
"Am I happy? I cannot say that either because I don't know what the court will decide... we have to wait and see in December," he said, adding that his wife and their other children might attend the hearing with him.
"Whenever I attended court, at least one of my kids would tag along. This time, they are talking about going but it will depend on whether they can get the days off," he said.
Gaik Yap's death and the struggle for justice for her had taken its toll on the family. Although it is now coming close to nine years, their grief is still raw.
Ah Sau said they still do not talk about Gaik Yap at home or discuss her case.
"My other children wouldn’t ask me even when they missed the court hearings. They would find out from news reports."
The family also had to put up with rumours that they were paid off when news quietened down and the case was stalled for many years in the beginning.
Ah Sau said people asked him how many millions of ringgit he received and when his family was moving from their flat in Paya Nahu to a bungalow.
"Even the police asked me if I had been paid off when I gave a statement. Reporters also asked me when they heard the rumour.
"I was so angry but I could not fight or scold them. Losing my temper would not have helped... the first two years were very difficult," said the grandfather of two boys aged nine and one.
Chee said his family neither wanted nor needed money, not even donations, from anybody as they were only concerned with getting justice for Gaik Yap.
"It is justice that we want... closure after all these years," he said, adding that he once received a donation of a five-digit amount but he never cashed the cheque that was given to him by a Barisan Nasional (BN) politician.
Ah Sau said he was thankful for the support he received from both Pakatan Rakyat and BN politicians, friends, and even strangers.
He said one of the PR reps would drive him to court and stay by his side until court adjourned.
"Now, when I go to court, they won't leave me alone. They always have someone following me everywhere to make sure I don't try anything again," he said, referring to his attempt to jump off the balcony of the court building last year.
Berapit assembly member Lydia Ong Kok Fooi, who is from Sungai Petani, recalled how the local community had rallied to help the family.
"When people heard that a young woman had gone missing, they started a search party even before the police was notified. They went home and brought out their pet dogs to help trace her.
"The people searched the area where she was last seen until early morning. That was the kind of cooperation we had in a small town," she said.
Ong remembered how furious the women in the community, especially mothers and housewives, were when nobody was brought to book for the rape and murder of Gaik Yap after so many years.
"Just a couple of months after the incident, we had gatherings and we also began to collect signatures for a petition.
"We obtained 4,000 signatures for the petition that was later sent to Pak Lah (Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) who was the prime minister then.
"Almost every year, since 2006, some event would be organised so that people will not forget Gaik Yap and her family's fight for justice," said Ong. – November 2, 2014.
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