Days of hope end in heartbreak as missing 10-year-old Sabah girl found dead, mother recalls unanswered prayers

KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — The mother of a 10-year-old Sabah girl found dead after days of desperate searching says she never stopped praying for her daughter’s safe return. Instead, those prayers ended in unimaginable heartbreak.

“I never stopped praying. Every day, I mentioned my daughter Nurjilya’s name and asked Allah to show me where she was. In the end, Allah answered my prayers… my daughter’s body was found,” Normaida Husin, 32, told New Straits Times (NST).

Nurjilya Abdullah disappeared on July 13. Her body was found late on Wednesday on a hillside covered in dense vegetation near a house under construction in Kampung Numbak, Sepanggar.

Police said the body was in an advanced state of decomposition and could only be identified by the clothes the child had been wearing when she vanished.

Speaking through tears, Normaida remembered her third child, one of five siblings, as a gentle, obedient girl whose faith belied her young age.

“Nurjilya was a good and obedient child. She loved reciting the Quran, never missed her prayers and always played with her younger siblings. I loved her so much,” she said.

Normaida said she had left for work as a cleaner at Wisma Merdeka on the morning of July 13. When she returned home at about 5pm, her daughter was gone.

“I immediately searched the village with my family until late that night, but we couldn’t find her,” she said.

The search continued the next day before the family lodged a police report on July 14. Police issued a missing person’s alert the following morning, prompting officers, relatives and villagers to join the hunt, NST reported.

Throughout those agonising days, Normaida said her faith never wavered.

“Throughout those days, I never stopped praying. Every time I prayed, I mentioned Nurjilya’s name and asked Allah to bring my daughter back to me.

“Alhamdulillah, Allah answered my prayers. At 10.30pm that night, Nurjilya’s body was found.”

Now, she says, all she wants is justice.

Normaida said she knew of the two men arrested in connection with the investigation because they lived in the same village, but did not know them personally.

“I only want justice. What happened to my daughter is heartbreaking. I hope those responsible will receive the punishment they deserve,” she said.

Acting Kota Kinabalu police chief Superintendent Syed Lot Syed Abdul Rahman said a post-mortem found Nurjilya died from injuries to her face and the back of her head, believed to have been caused by repeated blows with a hard, blunt object.

Two men, aged 39 and 42, have been arrested to assist investigations. Police are investigating the case as murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code, while the motive has yet to be established.