A Needle in the Haystack: Finding Anna Jenkins *Re-Issue*

Summary

Australian True Crime – "A Needle in the Haystack: Finding Anna Jenkins"

Date: June 10, 2026
Host: Meshel Laurie
Guest: Greg Jenkins

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Overview

In this gripping episode of Australian True Crime, host Meshel Laurie is joined by Greg Jenkins to recount the extraordinary and harrowing journey of trying to find answers following the disappearance and murder of his mother, Anna Jenkins, during a visit to Malaysia in 2017. Anna, devoted mother and selfless community worker, vanished after a routine trip to her homeland; the resulting investigation exposed distressing truths about international policing, corruption, family trauma, and the global realities of human trafficking. With compelling detail, Greg’s story gives voice to the struggle for justice, accountability, and closure.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Anna Jenkins: Life and Character (02:17–08:06)

• Family History: Anna met her husband, Frances, in Malaysia before settling in Adelaide with their two children, Greg and his sister.
• Cultural Blend: Anna’s Malaysian traditions influenced family life in Australia, from food to daily habits.
• Altruism: In Adelaide, Anna dedicated her time to supporting homeless and refugee communities, often cooking meals and providing accommodation to those in need.
  • Memorable anecdote: Anna once stood up to bikies when she felt someone at their headquarters needed help; she ended up with their respect and protection.

    “If you want to kill me, kill me.” (07:11, Greg Jenkins)

The Disappearance (08:06–16:12)

• 2017 Trip: Anna and her husband traveled to Malaysia to visit her mother, as they did several times a year.
• Circumstances: On December 13, Anna left her hotel for a dental appointment. She was last heard from when she told her husband over the phone that someone had tried to steal her passport (10:33).
• The Passport’s Value: Australian passports are highly prized in Malaysia, particularly in connection with human trafficking.
• Investigation Begins: The family’s initial hopes collided with inadequate response from Malaysian authorities, who did not treat Anna’s disappearance as a police matter.

Struggles with Malaysian Authorities (16:12–26:17)

• Obstruction and Indifference:
  • Police delayed their response, failed to retrieve crucial CCTV footage, and showed little initiative.
  • Local officers insisted “missing persons is a family issue, not a police matter” (15:34, Greg Jenkins).
• Greg’s Efforts:
  • Greg personally undertook searches, spending unprecedented energy and over $860,000 of his own money (16:31–16:37).
  • He traveled to Malaysia over 50 times, coordinated volunteers, and distributed flyers/banners throughout the country.
• Systemic Failure:
  • Malaysian police would not expand their search jurisdiction or issue bulletins.
  • Possible sightings and significant leads were dismissed or ignored.

Discovery of Remains (22:58–41:00)

• Breakthrough: In June 2020—three years after Anna’s disappearance—a construction worker discovered her belongings and a bone at a building site. He contacted Greg after connecting the items to missing persons reports online.
• Distrust in Police: The worker hesitated to go to authorities, fearing wrongful accusation—a common sentiment in Malaysia.
• Police Response: With the evidence handed over, police closed the case, promptly issuing a death certificate with no DNA confirmation at the time (26:17).
• Greg’s On-the-ground Search: Upon finally traveling to the site, Greg quickly found further evidence (Anna’s other shoe and personal items), contradicting police claims about a thorough search (30:47–31:11).
• Forensic Mishandling:
  • Authorities failed to follow basic forensic protocols, e.g., not wearing gloves.
  • Greg had to push for any further site examination, which remained minimal and target-limited.

Institutional Barriers and Corruption (41:00–47:00)

• Profits Over Justice: Police admitted the construction site was too valuable to disrupt for an investigation (28:30–28:57).
• Corruption & Complicity: The episode explores the potential collusion between police and traffickers or developers:
  • Remains were moved to protect property development.
  • Only non-building areas were searched, and evidence was mishandled or suppressed.
• Family Targeted:
  • Jenkins family faced 32 false allegations, including accusations of drug involvement and domestic violence, to shift blame away from Malaysian authorities (44:08–45:13).

The Coronial Inquest & Ongoing Legal Battles (52:15–61:37)

• Coronial Inquest: A hard-won, year-long inquest in Malaysia ultimately resulted in an “open verdict,” failing to confirm murder or hold anyone accountable (57:57–58:44).
• Legal Obstacles:
  • Greg encountered enormous financial and legal barriers, including prohibitive fees for court documents ($11,800 for a post-mortem copy), repeated delays, and the refusal to consider evidence from Australian experts.
  • Malaysian police tried to present dirt as Anna's "ashes" (59:47).
  • Evidence such as the Uber tracker vanished multiple times under police control (51:10–52:15).
• Advocacy & Support: South Australian MP (and former journalist) Frank Pangallo provided crucial advocacy.

Personal Toll & Family Impact (47:00–73:56)

• Greg’s Guilt: Greg struggled with feelings of guilt for not searching certain areas sooner, despite tireless effort (47:00–48:00).
• Father’s Decline: Anna’s husband’s health rapidly deteriorated after her remains were found, compounded by dementia (72:57–73:58).
• Last Acts of Kindness: Greg brought Anna’s remains home himself and noted marks suggesting blunt force trauma, confirming the family’s suspicions of murder (71:10–72:23).
• Isolation & Diminishing Support: The emotional cost led to isolation, with friends and family dropping away from the ongoing struggle.
• Community Support: South Australian forensic teams were compassionate and supportive—the only reliable institutional allies in Greg's fight.

Systemic Failures in Australia (63:35–68:07)

• DFAT & AFP Role: Australian agencies provided minimal help, often passing responsibility or citing jurisdictional limits.
  • “The Australian government will come in and say something and help us. You know, the police force in that country are going to do the best to get the best outcome and all of that is...non existent.” (63:47, Greg Jenkins)
• Media Disinterest:
  • Major news outlets dismissed Anna’s case as not “click-worthy” (64:29).
• Legislative Change: Greg advocates for reforms in Australian victims’ support for those affected by overseas crime.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Like, it sounds silly, but you feel guilty sleeping or getting food. I burnt out quite a bit...if mum needs my help, then I can't be, you know, sitting at a restaurant having fun or having a drink because that's unfair."
  — Greg Jenkins, (00:00)

• “The only ones that were stopping us from getting any progress was the Malaysian police.”
  — Greg Jenkins, (21:25)

• “Missing persons is a family issue, not a police matter.”
  — Malaysian police, paraphrased by Greg Jenkins, (15:34)

• “I asked a simple question to the police. I was like, well, if you're not going to search outside your jurisdiction, can you just, you know, send an email to all of the police stations...They said, no, that's too big of a task.”
  — Greg Jenkins, (18:04)

• “We always said...it was trying to find a needle in a haystack, but we didn't know where the haystack was or if there was a needle in it...”
  — Greg Jenkins, (22:41)

• “...the police have said, we've done a thorough search of the area and you've shown up and there are her shoes.”
  — Podcast Host, (30:53)

• “Between myself and the forensic team, we only found 34 bones and fragments of mum...So where’s the rest of them?”
  — Greg Jenkins, (41:18)

• “Your mum was snatched off the street, you know, like, and a police force that's not interested in helping find who murdered her. I would think that's an interesting story for Australians...”
  — Podcast Host, (64:29)

• “...every step of the way, when you get something, even though it's pretty horrific knowing your mum was brutally murdered, it's still like a step forward to go, all right, cool, we've got this.”
  — Greg Jenkins, (72:55)

• “The reason why I can't let this go as well is because there's the three year statutory limitation on suing the Malaysian police for negligence...It’s paving a way for everyone else...This is what you can expect, this is what you can do.”
  — Greg Jenkins, (62:00–63:21)

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Timeline & Timestamps

• 00:00 – Greg describes the emotional toll of the search
• 02:17–08:06 – Anna’s cultural/family background and early life in Australia
• 08:06–15:34 – The days leading up to Anna’s disappearance and immediate aftermath
• 16:31 – The spiraling costs and frequency of Greg’s private search efforts
• 22:41 – “Needle in a haystack”—the elusive nature of the search for Anna
• 24:33 – Discovery of Anna’s belongings and remains
• 26:17–30:20 – Police closure of the case and Greg’s first-hand search of the site
• 41:21 – Corruption and profit-driven obstruction of justice
• 44:08–47:00 – Series of false accusations against the Jenkins family
• 52:15–61:37 – The Malaysian coronial inquest: delays, evidence issues, and emotional costs
• 68:07–78:23 – On-going legacy: support for other families, advocacy for change, and the hope for a foundation in Anna’s name

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Final Reflections

• Legacy: Greg continues to fight for justice, not only for his mother but for others facing similar crises.
  “...because when I first started, I had no idea what to do...Well, this is an incredible legacy...” (77:49–78:23)
• Advocacy: He’s pushing for legislative changes, more effective government support, and systemic reform.
• Healing and Solidarity: Despite relentless obstacles, Greg’s efforts yielded community and awareness-building, providing critical guidance for future families in crisis.

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Resources

• Support: Lifeline (13 11 14), 1-800-Respect (1-800-737-732), 13 Yarn (13 92 76)
• More Information: Links to Greg Jenkins’ social media campaigns and GoFundMe are in the show notes.

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This summary captures the brutal complexity and emotional depth of Anna Jenkins’ case, offering listeners both a chilling cautionary tale and a rallying call for reform and action.

Transcript

[Greg Jenkins]

Like, it sounds silly, but you feel guilty sleeping or getting food. I burnt out quite a bit, but I would use that time when I'm back at home to quickly try and get as much rest as I can, as much food and go back because I felt as though like if mum needs my help, then I can't be, you know, sitting at a restaurant having fun or having a drink because that, that's unfair. I would say the first three years was still panic mode in that there was hope that we could potentially find Mum.

[Podcast Host]

Usually when we leave the country, our mothers nag us to be careful and to stay safe. Anna Jenkins had more to worry about than most mums, because when her son Greg went travelling, it was often with the Australian armed forces. But it was Anna who met with foul play on a trip away. In 2017, Anna Jenkins and her husband Frances traveled to her home country of Malaysia, as they had many times before. But this time only Frances made it home. With little help from the local authorities, their son Greg ended up launching his own investigation. He learned a lot about the dark side of Malaysia and eventually Anna's remains and personal belongings were recovered on a building site. Greg Jenkins joins us on Australian True Crime to tell his story. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung People of the Kulin Nation and a warning. This episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.

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[Greg Jenkins]

so dad was in the defense force. He did a couple of tours of Vietnam and then he changed over to be a carpenter and they had some tasks on in Butterworth, so some rotations and through meeting a couple of the Malaysians over there, he then he got hooked up with mum's sister to go out on a date, went to go pick her up and then like mum a lot better, which caused a bit of a rift so he ended up taking mum out and then it just, it went from strength to strength there.

[Podcast Host]

How many kids did they have?

[Greg Jenkins]

2. One really intelligent, beautiful, handsome bloke. And then another sister, Two kids. So my sister was born in Penang and then Mum was pregnant and then flew to Adelaide where they settled to have me, love growing up there. So we moved out to the country home of McLeod's daughters out at Freeling. Wow. That's. That's all it's got for it. You had two pubs in sport.

[Podcast Host]

Great.

[Greg Jenkins]

But, you know, absolutely loved it, like, out in the farmland. So we had free rein to do whatever we wanted in terms of, you know, riding our bikes. And Adelaide itself is like a big country town. Like, it's fairly slow moving, but as kids it's absolutely brilliant to grow up in. And we had quite a lot of fun.

[Podcast Host]

Sounds lovely. And it sounds very different to Malaysia, obviously. I know that both our cultures are very different. Did your mum grow up in a busy city, like in Penang or where did she grow up in Malaysia?

[Greg Jenkins]

Nah. So she grew up in a place called Paratbunta, which is on the mainland. It's probably about an hour away from Butterworth. So she just grew up. Very, very simple life. I think she started working before she hit double figures.

[Podcast Host]

Wow. What a different life for her in Adelaide.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, massively so. She still had her Malaysian ways over there. So, like, when she come back to Adelaide, like, obviously her cooking was phenomenal.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Greg Jenkins]

I remember I got some weird looks when I used to go to school and Mum would put, like, chilies in there as a snack and I just sitting there, just chewing on a chili, you know, just all of the. The old brooms where they had just hundreds of those thin straw sticks.

[Podcast Host]

Yep.

[Greg Jenkins]

She'd only use that to sweep up both carpet and. And the floor. But, yeah, it was. It was a good mix of the two cultures.

[Podcast Host]

Did she go back to Malaysia to visit much, her and your dad?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah. So they. They would go that usually four times a year. So Mum's mum. So my grandma, she was over there in a nursing home. So the rest of the family. So Mum's family split and they just stopped communicating. So no one looked after Grandma. So Mum did that. So Mum was on a pension and everything that she made she would just send over to Grandma to make sure she was, you know, looked after. And they would fly to Penang to go visit Grandma. Take her out. Yeah. So sometimes Mum would go by herself and other times her and dad would. The comedy duo, which would go together.

[Podcast Host]

So lovely. And she looks like the most beautiful, lovely lady. She's a little tiny sparrow. Wasn't she, your mum?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, a little Firecracker.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So she didn't work in Adelaide. What she did was volunteered her time helping out the homeless, refugees and anyone that. That needed help. So she went out and rented a house and just used it as like a bit of a safe house. So if anyone was in trouble, they just messaged her. She would go, open it up, bring them food, look after them. She had deals with, like, there's a couple of bakeries. So at the end of the day, whatever they didn't sell, they would donate to Mum and then she would then take it to. To these places or. Or to the homeless. She was a very stubborn lady, too. There was a story I told at the funeral where I came down to visit and my favorite is Mum's chicken curry. And she was making this big pot of chicken curry, like it was enough to probably last a couple of weeks for me. And I thought, this is amazing. But what had happened was she was a big Christian lady as well, so she liked to say her prayers. And she pulled over, she felt like someone needed her help, so she just pulled over and then started saying some prayers. And she was outside of a bikie headquarters. So they've. While she was just sitting in a little dinged up red Festiva, they came out and told her to get lost. She refused and got out of the car and said, someone needs my help. If you want to kill me, kill me. So anyway, turns out the chicken curry that she was making, turns out someone within the headquarters was going through some personal stuff. Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

And she made chicken curry for the bikies.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So she told me, get in the car. And then so she drove out and I was gutted to, like, great to feed people, but, like, that's my favorite. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so, yeah, we went to drop it off at the. At the Bikie headquarters. And then they gave her a card and said, you can stop anywhere you want and say your prayers and do whatever you have to do and if anyone gives you any dramas, give us a call. And she got in the car and said, oh, that were lovely men. Just like, give me that card and don't call them, just give me a call. That's a handy card.

[Podcast Host]

Have you still got it?

[Greg Jenkins]

No.

[Podcast Host]

So in 2017, in late 2017, she and your dad were together on one of their trips to Malaysia to visit her mum, Right?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yes. I got them a ticket and they originally were going to go for two weeks, but decided to go for three weeks. And then I was going to fly down because I was away at the time with the Defense Force, I was going to come back and then we're going to have a family Christmas together. So her and dad left on December 5, 2017 to go over to visit Grandma. So I was away and I had to put my phone away. So when we got our phones given back to us, it was on the evening of the 13th, so I knew something was up when I had something like 111 missed calls from a sister. Managed to get onto my sister and she. So dad in the hotel have reached out to her to say that Mum hadn't returned. So she just let me know what was happening. And at that stage it was like, oh, yeah, Mum's probably, you know, just staying at the nursing home overnight to stay with Grandma. Or, you know, you never. You never think the worst and it's like, yeah, no dramas.

[Podcast Host]

Certainly not. I mean, from my perspective, I'm thinking your mum was Malaysian, so I'm thinking she knows her way around, she knows the language, she's there four times a year. And that day in particular, she'd gone for a dental appointment. Right. So she's just really going about her business.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. And she'd been seeing this dentist since 2002.

[Podcast Host]

But she had told your dad that she was then going to visit her mum in the nursing home. Right after the dentist.

[Greg Jenkins]

Correct? Yeah. So with dad that he's had prostate cancer, breast cancer, we thought he had bowel cancer. He's had heart problems, like, he's had a pretty tough go and he wasn't feeling 100%, so he decided to stay at the hotel and have a sleep. And then Mum was going to go out to the dentist quickly, get the checkup, go see Grandma. So she had some clothes and she would also, she made friends with the. The hotel staff to do the cleaning. And so she managed to get like toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoos. And she donates that to the nursing home. Yeah, right, yeah. So she said she's just going to drop that off and then come back and they were going to go out for dinner.

[Podcast Host]

Now, did she phone your dad, though, from the Uber? Because we know that she got in an Uber right after the dentist.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So the way that Uber works in Malaysia at the time, so Uber didn't come in till September 2017, so it was still fairly fresh. So you didn't need the app with your credit card attached to it. So you can just pay, like in Malaysia, you can pay by cash. So Mum's phone, like her Australian phone wasn't working and she couldn't use the app. So, you know, when she left, the hotel staff called her an Uber and then she just paid in cash. When she left the dentist, the dentist staff called her the Uber. So she called dad at 5:22. The Uber driver said that he had dropped her off around about quarter to farts. So she called dad at 5:22 to say that there was someone trying to steal her passport. And dad just said, you know, come back to the hotel. Her passport was at the hotel. What I found out was an Australian passport is worth up to 100,000 US in Malaysia because sex trafficking and human trafficking are so prolific. So what it does is it gives you access to 169 countries without a visa. So some of these ports, you don't need to scan in, you just need to basically, you know, hold up your passport and then off you go. If it's during working hours, if you come late at night, it's not manned. So you can take, I believe it's 20 girls out in one trip. So you can act as a school teacher. And that's how they move the girls. So the girls move from house to house every 24 to 48 hours. So they're always on the move until they can get away to get them out, out of the country, the hotel. So they were staying at the Gen Hotel in Georgetown and they were phenomenal, better than the police. So what they did was the general manager and dad drove around for about six hours that night trying to go to different locations to work out if they could see Mum or like they went to the nursing home and she never turned up. And that, that's where it started getting a bit all right, something's up here. After driving around, they just said to dad, you know, go to the hotel room, we'll see if she turns up the next morning. They also contacted the police and same again, just wait till the next morning and then if not, then do a police report in the background. I was overseas, so I told my boss and they'll fly me back to Australia. So the morning of the 14th, mum never arrived. And so same again. The hotel manager and dad went for another drive for I think another three to six hours, just still checking around Penang. The police then turned up and took a police report. There was no interpreter, so some of the police report wasn't done properly. They just had one of the hotel staff that could speak a little bit of English to kind of do some of the translation, which I think that's where it started going pear shaped.

[Podcast Host]

Your poor dad, by the way, I mean, I can't imagine anything more stressful. And as you say, he had health issues already.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, he was. He was beside himself. He was upset. He was angry at himself for not going with Mum, and he. He carried that all the way through to his passing. Last year, I managed to fly in the morning of the 15th of December. So two days later. So hired a car, met up with dad, and then we basically started going out to do our own search. So the police said that the Uber driver said that Mum got out and wanted to get out at a orphanage. Like, it's a primary school slash orphanage. Which didn't make sense, but I thought, all right, well, that's. That's our starting point. I'd managed to find six CCTV cameras, which one of them was inside the school, and then the rest were surroundings. So it could have identified. If Mum actually did get out of the taxi, which we don't believe she did, it could have identified, you know, that the vehicle was there, more people in the vehicle with her, et cetera, et cetera. However, the police refused to check the cctv. And the last one, which was a private camera owned by a house that had the longest overwrite, which was six weeks. And, yeah, police refused to check it, and we lost it all. During the searching process, I was told by the officer in charge of the criminal Department of the Penang district that Mum has the right to disappear and the right not to be found. I also got told that missing persons is a family issue, not a police matter. Like, why didn't they just do a ground search? Why didn't they. Like, the photos that you see of Mum leaving the hotel, that was me getting that. Like, why didn't the police get that and time stamp it? Why didn't they get at the dentist? There was 11 CCTV cameras. Why didn't they get that to check? Is that the car that she got in? Like, what's the serial number or the registration number? All of these things that I thought, you know, watching the TV shows, reading these documentaries, like the true crime stories and podcasts, like, to me, this was just basic, the basics.

[Podcast Host]

A basic door knock, a basic. All those beginning things.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, so this is when you started your own operation. Effectively, it's like two days after your mum went missing. Since then, I mean, you've spent over what is over $300,000 conducting this investigation yourself.

[Greg Jenkins]

I'm up to 860,000.

[Podcast Host]

Jesus.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. And I'm still in the hole at the moment with lawyer fees, so. I've traveled to Malaysia, I think 50, 55 or 56 times. So what I would do is I'd go over for four weeks, I'd come back, have a quick rest and then go back again back. My best mate owns a company, Panoptix Solutions, they do security. And I basically sat with him and his ops manager at the time and whenever I would come back we would sit down and we basically, because the police refused to search outside of their jurisdiction, which is like a 3 kilometer by 3 kilometre square and they said they're not going to go outside of that because it's not their jurisdiction. So I thought, bhagar, I'll do it myself. So I would fly to Malaysia, I'd do a search again of Penang and then I'd push out onto the mainland because at that stage Mum was still missing. And so we still, you know, had hope that, you know, we, we could potentially find her whether, you know, she'd been kidnapped. So they do kidnap elderly women that they see caring and what they do is they then put those women in those safe houses or what they call safe houses. And like I said before, they move the young girls every 24 to 48 hours to different houses.

[Podcast Host]

Right. But they set up safe like, like house mothers almost in those houses.

[Greg Jenkins]

Pretty much, yeah. You know, I asked a simple question to the police. I was like, well, if you're not going to search outside your jurisdiction, can you just, you know, send an email to all of the police stations like a, they call it a bolo. So be on the lookout for this person. They said, no, that's too big of a task. That was part of my reasoning for going across all of Malaysia. So I've traveled over, I would say 150,000 K's just traveling around and every town I would stop at hotels, churches, police stations and elderly homes. I made a little pack and I would just hand out flyers and posters and like it sounds silly but you feel guilty sleeping or getting food. I burnt out quite a bit. But I would use that time when I'm back at home to quickly try and get as much rest as I can, as much food and go, go back. Because I felt as though like if Mum needs my help then I can't be, you know, sitting at a restaurant having fun or having a drink because that, that's unfair. I would say the first three years was still panic mode in that there was hope that we could potentially find, find Mum. I found, you know, with having to do the searches, a lot of our friends chipped in as well, so they would join me on the search as well, which was amazing. So then, no, I could. I could hire out a couple of cars and then we could actually split and get more of the country done. So, putting up stickers, I made banners and there was this railing that went weirdly across traffic, but you couldn't walk up it. And I've got no idea why it exists. It just doesn't make sense, but it just seems a perfect place. And I made up this massive banner, so just stopped at the hardware store, bought some cable ties, put it in my mouth and then just shimmied across in traffic and then managed to put it up, like silly, because if I fell off, I. I'd get struck by traffic.

[Podcast Host]

But, yeah, definitely. But also equally hard for anyone to shimmy up there and take it down, I guess, 100%.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. But it also creates people to look at it as well. And I had someone that had contacts with the Royal Family, which reached out and just said, you know, we were driving and we just seen two feet dangling from this little railing. And we thought what? They obviously thought, you know, maybe someone's hung themselves or. Yeah. And then so we look back and there was this crazy dude. Yeah. Shimming along, putting up a banner and then. Yeah. And that. That helped get some. Some word of mouth as well.

[Podcast Host]

Did you have any red herrings during this phase? Did you have any moments where someone said, yeah, I think maybe this lady. Maybe I did see her over there.

[Greg Jenkins]

Heaps. Yeah, there was heaps of possible sightings. So that was the frustrating thing with the police is the investigations officers refused to check any of the possible sightings. I had a friend, Tom McDonald, he was living in Penang at the time and thankful for him and his family for being there, because I would ring the police and try and beg them to go out, to go, you know, someone's. Just because I put my WhatsApp number on all the posters. And so people would send in, like, multiple possible sightings. I'd send it to the police and get no response. And I'd try and call them. No response. Yes, I would. I'd have to use other means of friends like Paul McDonald to go, hey, bro, I've just got this. You know, he'd be either out with his family or doing something and thankfully he would drop everything and go and check it out for me. And again, that the clash of emotions there of going, all right, possible sighting, this is awesome. And I was like, no, it's not, Mum. But the fact that the local People in Malaysia were actively helping. The only ones that were stopping us from getting any progress was the Malaysian police. So after we finished all the searching and we always said, like, it was trying to find a needle in a haystack, but we didn't know where the haystack was or if there was a needle in it was the best way to describe our search. And then, so three years later. So it was on 14th of June, 2020, it was 7.34pm I get a message to saying, are you Anna's family? I said, yes, this is her son. And then they started sending pictures of some items that they found.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, my God.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. And, like, looked at it and it was like, that's definitely Mum. So dad made Mum a crucifix, which she carried everywhere with her. I gave Mum a set of rosary beads from when I went to Italy. Seen her purse. See, like, Mum used to love Vic's vapor drops. Would eat them, like lollies. And just seeing them, it's like, yeah, that's. That's definitely Mum.

[Podcast Host]

So who sent you this message? Like, what, how has this happened?

[Greg Jenkins]

A construction worker. Oh, so there was a construction work. And the background story to him was he had just come to the site to start working as a Landsat gardener. One of his friends or relatives, I can't remember which one, worked at the site and told him about, you know, at the start of the year, they found human remains at this site and they moved them and he asked to have a look. So they took him to the site and he found an appointment card, like a dental appointment card for Mum and it had a name on it. So he's gone back to his wife, who could speak English, and they Googled Mum's name and then all of the missing persons reports and the posters, et cetera, come out. So for him, it was a bit of a cash grab because we'd offered the reward, which is. Is fine. Like, we. We offered that reward, you know, for any information and had that money set aside.

[Podcast Host]

So how much was the reward, by the way?

[Greg Jenkins]

20,000 ringgit, which was like about 7,000 Australian.

[Podcast Host]

And I guess that's why families do offer rewards, right? To entice someone who may naturally have thought, I'm staying out of this. I don't want anything to do with this to change their mind. And it worked.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah. So it worked to a certain degree in terms of. So this guy was too scared to go to the police. So everyone knows that they don't really trust the Malaysian police because if they give Them, the items. He was scared that they're just going to point the finger at him and go, case closed, you did it. It's all done.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, we'll just tell this annoying guy from Australia that he can leave us alone now because we've solved it.

[Greg Jenkins]

Correct? Okay, yeah, yeah. So he was too scared to go to the police. And I said, no worries, I'll get the police to come out to you. They refused. And even worse than that, we're using the Consular Emergency center through dfat, sent them through everything. Like, here's the pictures, here's where the construction site is, here's everything. They passed it on to the police, got nothing. It took me 10 days for the construction worker to then go to the police and take the the items there. So that happened on 24th June 2020.

[Podcast Host]

Were there any remains in this parcel that he had?

[Greg Jenkins]

One. Okay, so there was a coccyx bone.

[Podcast Host]

Okay. And. And then the cross and her other effects of Vicks vapor drops and other things.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yep.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, Yep.

[Greg Jenkins]

So what the police did was they shut the case straight up. So they said, well, it was a missing person, so now it's not a missing person because we found a bone. So that was handed in at 4 o'. Clock. A death certificate for Mum was then produced on the 26th of January. So two days later with cause of death, cause of death was undetermined, which they call like a sudden death, which means she died of like natural causes. And it's like, hang on a second, this doesn't make sense. Like if you're going to do a death certificate for an individual, then you need to confirm that that's an individual. No DNA testing was done till a month and a half later. So how are you aware that from one coccyx bone you can identify that that's 100% mum? So after that they closed the case and then said they weren't doing any more searching and then said they're just waiting for direction from the Director of Public Prosecutions. So I put in an application to fly to Malaysia and it was during the COVID period as well. So I managed to finally get there mid July and then had to do my 14 days in isolation for quarantine. So got there, I got out on the 29th of July, so got to Penang and I met with DFAT or the Australian consulate staff from KL who'd come down. We had a quick chat and we went out and had a meeting with the officer in charge of the Penang district. During that meeting it got Extremely heated because I, like, in my head, we found the needle in a haystack. Let's get onto this searching, let's shut down, let's, like, what are you going to do to help? And I even asked if that, like, what, what are you guys going to do to, to help? And I said, like, what, what have you done in terms of searching? They said, oh, we've had a dog do a search and they didn't find anything. So that's it. But that can't be it because we found one bone, which means there's probably more bones there. I said, we need to put in a stop work order so then we can check the rest of it. And his comment blew me away. He then explained to me that this construction site, which was by Bajaya Group, who's one of the largest construction companies in Southeast Asia, he said, this is an important development for Penang. So what it is is it's villas for Malaysian government officials. So he said this is very important and the developer could lose a lot of money. So the chief of the Penang district should not be saying that money and profits for a developer is more important than doing an investigation. And I said, I want to go out and have a look at the site. And I had the DNA testing that afternoon as well.

[Podcast Host]

They were swabbing you to compare to remains?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yes, to the coccyx bone. So 29th of January, we went to get the DNA test done. The doctor was out, so I said, let's go straight to the site. We went to the site, I said, whereabouts did you find mom's stuff? And he, he pointed out to an area and he said all of Mum's stuff was on a blue tarp in a pile. And it's like, okay, well, this isn't making sense to me because the story that I got told was all this was handed into the police, but now you're telling me that it was found in a pile. And they said, yeah, she's obviously died of natural causes. And I said, like, but there's, there's clothes in there, like. And so within two minutes of me being there, I found Mum's shoe. So as part of the items that were first handed in on 24 June, on 29 July, I found the other shoe to match that and said, here

[Podcast Host]

it is, you poor bastard. I mean, can we just not kind of run away from that? Yeah, I know, as you said, you, you just kind of been running on adrenaline for literally years, so your nervous system's just peaking all the time. And. And then you find your mum's shoe. I mean, tell me about that day, that. That moment.

[Greg Jenkins]

A lot of it was anger and frustration, especially when the police have said, we've done a thorough search of the

[Podcast Host]

area and you've shown up and there are her shoes.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yep. Like I said, within. Within two minutes. I didn't allow myself, I guess, to process the gravity of the situation because at that point it's like, all right, well, we found a shoe. What else is there?

[Podcast Host]

And you've got so much more to do because no one's helping you. So it's not like, you know, you go, I found a shoe. And cavalry arrives, was it? It's like, well, I've got to keep trying to find everything.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So then I went down and. And then I found more. I found another card with Mum, stuff. So more stuff from her purse. So then it took ages to convince them to get a forensic team to come out and grab the shoe. When the forensic team came out, so I just stood off to a side, they just walked in and then they picked up the shoe. And so shouldn't they be wearing gloves to do the search? And so then he had to stop them and go, hey, put your gloves on. It's like, what. What level of searching are you guys? Like, you're contaminating everything. It was a shambles. There was a big cliff and I said, has anyone checked up there, like, above? And they said, no, no need. So it took me ages to convince the police, firstly to do a check of the surrounding areas, because if it was during their construction stage, there's a potential that, you know, her. Her body was up there and then made its way down. So, yeah, they finally gave me a team and went up there and. And searched it because they also said that one of the things that was claimed was Mum went hiking for the first time in 65 years. And the former officer in charge of the police or Penang district said to my face that, you know, Mum's just gone for a hike and she's just gone into the bush and she'll come out in a couple of days, but don't worry, there's plenty of mangoes and bananas in the jungle, so she'll be fine.

[Podcast Host]

It's nonsense, really. Nonsense. Yeah, yeah. In her little outfit that she wore to the dentist, like, I don't think so.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, at the age of 65, like, never hiked a day in her life. She isn't going to kick it off in another country while she's on her Way to see grandma. With toiletries. Like, bags of toiletries. Like, it just doesn't make sense. So it took another eight days for me to convince the forensic team from KL to come down. So before that, so the police said they weren't doing any more searching. So again, they've closed it off. For the second time. I thought, bugger, I'll do it myself. So there's a massive rock wall that they had there. So what I was doing was I was just moving the rocks, checking it, because there was. I found some blue. Like little bits of blue tarp. So where there was blue tarp, I would just move like hundreds of rocks, check it, then put the rocks back, and then just did my own search. And I remember, like, I was just wrecked from, from doing all of that and it was stinking hot and so I just sa on the rocks and like, I don't. I don't believe. Like, this has really made me. Like, I was anti Christian before, but it's made me even more anti Christian. And it's. It's probably not the best thing to say, but, like, if Jesus exists, why let us go through this? Like, for a, like a beautiful soul that just does nothing but help people that are in need, why is she in this situation? Like, devoted her whole life to Christianity and going to church and helping people and this is what you put her in. But I sat down and then the whole area filled with like hundreds of black and little blue butterflies. Mum flavor colors blue. Again, this is all probably coincidence, but it just flooded the. And I took a video of it and it's like. And at the time, like, my brain didn't comprehend it and it's like, that's fucking annoying. Imagine living here with that many fucking butterflies. But then. And then I just, like, I finished filming and then I looked down and I found the first of Mum's remains.

[Podcast Host]

No.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. Yeah. So it was a vertebrae. So parts of Mum's spine was just sitting there on top of a rock. Yeah. And it just. Yeah. Not saying that it was a sign from.

[Podcast Host]

No, it's okay, I hear you.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, but it just. Yeah, like I said, it flooded the place. That's fucking weird. Took a video, put my phone down, looked down to my right and there was the bone. So I went down and had a look and it's like, fuck, I think I've just found a gold nugget. So I took a photo, sent it back to Troy Claydon, who is also a paramedic with Panoptic Solutions, and said, bro, Is this a bone? And he had a look and said, yeah, yeah, that's a vertebrae. So I let him know. And it took about four or five, maybe six hours for the police to come down.

[Podcast Host]

I mean, you're trying to do everything by the book. By. And I'm the same as you. Like, you know, we're so familiar with true crime. Your first thought is, don't touch it, don't disturb it, call the police. Yeah, you're trying to do everything by the book and. Yeah, they're not.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So I put a marker on it and then just put some rocks around the area just to kind of keep it clean. And then kept trying to do a little bit more searching while I was waiting, so. Found some finger fragments. I didn't know it was finger fragments, but it was just like a. It looked like a stick, but same again, just marked it. Found a skull fragment. So that happened on the 1st of August. It took eight days for the police to agree to have the forensic team from KL to come down and do a search.

[Podcast Host]

So explain to me if her. Her bag and things were at the building site, where's the jungle, this patch of jungle that you're talking about in comparison to the building site?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yep. So it's like the construction site is directly behind the Penang Turf Club. And so where the police accused Mum of getting out of the Uber is probably about 500 meters away. So we were in the ballpark early on. The story that I got told was when they were cleaning or clearing the area, that's when they first found Lun's remains, which was January 2020.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, so they were clearing a patch of jungle.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yes. And I was told by the construction workers. So three of them, they said that they found human remains, so they called the police. So the project manager called the police. They said they rocked up in two cars. They had two of the paper bags that they put the majority of the human remains in, like evidence bags. I'll say evidence bags. You know how you had the wet bags that are paper?

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Greg Jenkins]

So they reckon it was similar to that. They put majority of the human remains in there and then took them away. The police have never said that that had occurred, even though all the construction workers that I've talked to have said, yep, that that definitely happened. The police finally did say that they did find another human remains in that same area, but it was a male. So not. Not with Mum or not connected to Mum. There was also a child's remains were found at that same location. So again, I was Trying to tell the police, well, wouldn't this then make it a crime scene where you close off the construction site, do a stop work order? Because this could potentially be a dumping ground for murdered individuals like Mum, but they, they shut that down fairly quickly.

[Podcast Host]

So you think this is the area that her remains were moved to by the construction workers, Right?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yes.

[Podcast Host]

So do you think that the construction site before it was a construction site when it was still jungle, do you think that was the crime scene?

[Greg Jenkins]

Potentially, there's one or two things. It's either, yes, it's the crime scene and the dumping place, or the crime happened at another location and this is just where they dumped the bodies. The fact that three human remains were found in that area and the police have ignored all three of them.

[Podcast Host]

Well, three without looking for remains too, isn't it? It's like three sets of remains were found accidentally. They didn't go in there and then try and find more remains, so who knows?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. And even the. One of the head of the forensic team, because I. I try to get there for the start. And he even said to me, I don't believe this is your mom's final resting spot. I said, yep, neither do I. So then from that point on, I sat back. The rule was they weren't allowed to dig any more than, I believe, 10 centimeters into the ground. They were only to use their fingers. And if they needed to, then they had like a little.

[Podcast Host]

Little trowel.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah. And I asked the question, like, why aren't you digging deeper? And they said, that's just what we've been advised to do. Which I know it's. It's a cursory search to protect the construction site. Yeah. And we're only searching this area. Even though they had photos, different areas marked, they said, we're only searching this area where there's no construction or no houses getting. Getting built on it.

[Podcast Host]

I have to ask this question. Do you think that this is about corruption? Do you think that the police are somehow involved or benefit from the human trafficking, which is a massive business, big financial business, because it seems like they're not just disinterested, but they're willful in their refusal to help you.

[Greg Jenkins]

That's a difficult one to answer. I'll put it this way, it's a question that needs to be raised. Like, we questioned whether or not there was collusion. So where I found Mum's remains was on a $107 million construction site with a gross profit of over 1 billion US. So the fact that the Police refused to search the construction site. The fact that, you know, the project manager moved Mum's remains to an area where they weren't building. So under Chinese tradition, it is taboo to buy property that's had humor remains on it. If that's the case, then they can't sell the property. So you have to ask the question. One, why did the project manager move Mum from a school in an area where they weren't building? Two, why did the police only search that area where they weren't building and not move to the rest of the construction site? Between myself and the forensic team, we only found 34 bones and fragments of mum. There's 206 bones in the, in the human body on average. So where's the rest of them? So while I was sitting there watching them, said a few prayers, then I had to deal with accusations. So one of the police officers said, so you found some parts of your mum's remains here? And I said, yeah. And he goes, that's a bit odd, isn't it? I said, not really, because you guys don't do your jobs properly. And he said, well, I think it's a bit strange that, you know, we search the area, we find nothing. You come here and then you find your mum's remains and your mum's shoe. He goes, don't you think that's odd? I said, I, I do think it's odd that you didn't find it in the first place. And then they accused me of planting Mum's remains.

[Podcast Host]

Were you fearful at any time? Like the bloke who contacted you about this was fearful that he'd get accused and blamed of this crime. Did you ever seriously think they could get me on this?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yes. Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

If you'd like to talk to someone about abuse that's taken place in your life, no matter how long ago it happened, your GP is always a good place to start. If that's not going to work for you, you can contact 1-800-Respect on 1-800-737-732 or via their website, 1-800-Respect.org au. Or you can call Lifeline's 24 hour phone counselling service on 13, 11, 14.

[Greg Jenkins]

Throughout this whole ordeal so far, the family has been accused of. I think we're up to 32 false allegations, which is all things to do with not investigating themselves. And it came out during the Corona Lingquest. You know, Mum was blamed for being involved in drugs. So the investigation officer doesn't speak English, can't read or write English, but reckons he's seen a diary which never existed. But he said he's seen a diary next to the bed and mum had written him that she was involved in drugs in Australia. And it's like, okay, well where's the evidence? So they had a photographer there, didn't take any photos. And it's like, if that's a key part of your evidence, why didn't you take that?

[Podcast Host]

It's a hell of a lie, isn't it?

[Greg Jenkins]

Massive. Massive. Like that's, that's perjury.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Greg Jenkins]

So like through the help of, we got one of the MPs, Frank Pangello.

[Podcast Host]

I read about this. So he's a former journo, right, and he's now a Member of Parliament for South Australia.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yes.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, he's been a real champion. Right.

[Greg Jenkins]

Massive. This line of inquiry was based on an item of clothing that had been found in Mrs. Jenkins suitcase. It was a T shirt that she had bought from a nearby mall with the words Escape emblazoned on the front. He pushed the police commissioner or the assistant or deputy police commissioner to do a quick turnaround for a letter so we could submit that to court to say that none of the family's ever been involved in drugs. We'd never had, you know, any nefarious charges. It cleared our name for that. But I got accused of domestic violence against Mum. The family got accused, so dad and my sister of domestic violence. I got let out of the room when they hit me with this accusation because I just burst into tears and got angry to go, I get that you have to do an investigation and you know, in most instances, like families, like have motive or behind it. I said, go ask the Federal Police, go ask South Australian Police, do your investigation of the family and you'll see we've been open and transparent. We've never done anything wrong. We're law abiding citizens, except for speeding on occasions, but fill your booze and do the investigation. And they just shut me down. And then I just got angry and it's like, why, why can't you just search and help mum do your job?

[Podcast Host]

I mean we know that, we know that when someone, well, is when a woman is murdered in particular in Australia, you know, they say, okay, first thing we do, check the partner, check the family. And then we work out in circles from there. But it seems like these guys just formed a very tight circle around you and never moved beyond that. Never wanted to anyway.

[Greg Jenkins]

No. And I guess like one, one thing that, that kind of drives me not. And I hate talking about it, but it's still. I carry a lot of the guilt and the blame for not finding Mum earlier. So I was walking, I think it was on the 16th, I was just walking around the. Around the area and I was wrecked and I looked into the jungle area where I eventually found Mum's remains and said, I don't think she's going to be in there.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Greg Jenkins]

And it. Yeah, yeah, it's still. It still gets me today that. Yeah, yeah, I feel like I let Mum down because I was. I was too. I was too tired and too lazy to. To walk in and search that area, which the police should have done. Yeah. But, yeah, that still eats away at me.

[Podcast Host]

I don't think anyone else in the world would accuse you of being lazy in your search for your mum. And as you say, it's a big country and there were lots of places to search and I think you covered

[Greg Jenkins]

all of it 100%. And I used to walk the streets. The key thing was walking early hours of the morning, so I would normally get two hours rest and then eat, and then the rest of the time I was out searching. And during those early mornings, I was trying to bump into nefarious actors. And through that I learned how bad Malaysia is, both with, you know, drugs, sex trafficking, the whole works. It's.

[Podcast Host]

It must have been some creeps that you had to kind of chat with and pretend to be cool about and.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah, and a lot of them just ignored me as well because they, they thought that I was like a police officer or. Yeah, because it's like I'm not there to, to have nicety chats going, hey, how are you? How was your day? It was boom. Have you seen this person? And then just get straight to it. But, but things that were never checked was the Uber driver, for instance.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, so I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking, for one thing, not only is he the last person that we know of, or at this stage that I know of, who saw your mum alive, but also I'm thinking, well, who else knows she's got an Australian passport as she's just wandering around town doing her business. And the next thing we know, she calls you dad, saying, someone wants to steal my passport. Well, maybe the dentist knew, maybe the home knew, but she didn't make it to the nursing home. Maybe the Uber driver was chatting and found out.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So I've worked out that's how it works in Malaysia is so you get Chinese taxi drivers and you've also got Chinese gangs that protect your affluent areas. So the deal that they have is they can do nefarious actions, but it can't be to anyone within that estate that they're protecting. And then they get paid through other means, whether that's through official means or unofficial means. And if someone gets in the taxi, then the taxi driver can warn out, hey, I've got this person good to go for robbery, kidnap, etc. Which is prolific through. Through that area. And that's what I believe has happened with Mum, is. So Mum doesn't have an ATM card, like a credit card. She's that frustrating senior citizen that. You know the old Commonwealth passbook.

[Podcast Host]

I was just gonna say, did she used to line up with the Commonwealth bank early on a Thursday morning and get out her money?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah. To the point where the Commonwealth bank no longer has those printing machines where you used to put your book in that. So I gotta handwrite it. Yeah, yeah. So she would always carry cash with her. So she just had large amounts of cash with her. And on that day, I believe she was going to pay another years to the nursing home to hold Grandma.

[Podcast Host]

Wow. Okay.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So that's the potential of he's seen Mum's got quite a large amount of money. Games on. No search was done of his vehicle, no search was done of his bank account to see if he received any benefits. That was all off limits. Her hair could be in there, there could be blood stains in the back, et cetera. Never done. Going back to what you were talking about early on about the Uber tracker. So the police have lost it three times, so they never got it. So I had to ring up the Uber and I got in touch with their alert team, which is a law enforcement response team. And I said that I'm after an Uber tracker on this date, this time, et cetera. And I said, yes, we got it, but we can't give it to you. It has to be a police officer. So he gave them the police officer's details. So he got it, he lost it. So I spoke to them again, they sent it to him again and he lost it. I had to give it to him a third time. Or the email trial three times and they still don't have it. So during the coronal inquest, never produced.

[Podcast Host]

How did you get an inquest? Is the inquest happened in Malaysia or in Australia?

[Greg Jenkins]

Malaysia.

[Podcast Host]

How on earth did you go from them being so obstructive to getting an inquest?

[Greg Jenkins]

So going back to the search just quickly. So what they did was the forensic team ended up finding bones. So all up we found 34 bones and fragments between me and the forensic team and I thought, this is going to get the search for the rest of the site done. They closed it off. So after two days of searching, they shut it down. The head of the, the Penang forensic team who took charge of it, he said that they had to stop searching because they didn't want to keep digging in case they found more evidence and their digging equipment damaged the evidence. So they called it off after two days. Funnily enough, the day that I left to go back to Australia was a day that they stopped searching. Like, that just blew my mind to. Like I said, if that was the case, we'd never known about dinosaurs. Like, we'd never known about all these arc. Like there would be no jobs for archaeologists. Like, no.

[Podcast Host]

Again, it's idiotic. It's a. It's a really dumb excuse.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. And you know the difference between a digging equipment going through a bone and like a blunt force trauma or something similar to that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So once they stopped it, they closed the case and that was it. And between myself and Frank Pangallo, we just continually kept asking and asking. We tried to get it done in, in Australia, but that, that still hasn't come to fruition yet, so obviously still kept doing media threatened to go to Penny Wong and finally they agreed to doing a Corona L. And it just, it took so much effort to get there, but we got it done. I was like, cool, now we can highlight everything.

[Podcast Host]

Did anything change for you personally after you'd found your mum's remains? I know the battle was still very much ongoing, but that's a pretty massive development.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Did you spend more time at home in Australia? Were you able to start to try and rest a bit more, like.

[Greg Jenkins]

Nah, not really because one, we had to try and get a lawyer to help us. Couldn't afford an Australian lawyer because the only one that we could get was at the time, the Queen's Council, and they're anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 an hour and they have to go to Malaysia and request it through the bar and potentially turn down. I visited, emailed and phoned 186 lawyers all bar. Three said, no way, we're not getting involved because it was against the police. One lawyer stepped up and he'd done human rights stuff before and he was the only one that I could afford. Yeah, A few of them wanted 50,000 Australian just to have a look at it. It's like, I don't have that, that kind of money. We went with what we could afford, not with what we wanted. With the coronial inquest, it was meant to be over four days and it ended up being a year, Just over a year and a bit.

[Podcast Host]

Why did they keep postponing it?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, so I'd have it and no one, no one took it seriously and it was just an absolute farcical. So on the first day they said, We've got 13 people that we're going to call up. It's like. But there's so many more people. Like, they didn't bother calling, like, the DNA specialists, they didn't bother calling, like, forensic team, they didn't bother calling a lot of the witnesses. I've got a video of instances where the initial investigation officer was trying to produce false statements to say that I was the one that was making Mum run away because she came to a church and she was crying and that's why she ran away and then tried to get someone from the church to go, you need to sign this. So there was so many false documents and this in coronal inquest, I said it was meant to go for four days. Every time I rocked up, it was meant to start at 10 o' clock and we wouldn't usually kick off till maybe 12 and then we have a break at 12:30, then they come back at about 2:00 clock and then it doesn't start even though we're there at 2 o', clock, the doors are locked. You don't usually get in until about 3, 3:30, and then we go till 4:30 and then. All right, we'll call it for a day. It's like we haven't achieved any. And that, that was consistent throughout. So I believe it was to continually drain my money. So every time we have a court date, the average is about 13,000 Australian. So that's flights, that's lawyer fees, that's so many things. And the reason why we're up to 860 odd thousand dollars and still with bills outstanding is I've been made to pay everything. Like, I wanted a copy of the DNA test that cost me money. I wanted a copy of the postmortem that was $11,800.

[Podcast Host]

A copy of the postmortem, like, it's not like you were asking for a second postmortem, a copy of the work that they had done. Unbelievable.

[Greg Jenkins]

No justice or vindication for the family

[Podcast Host]

of Annaparani Jenkins, also known as Anna,

[Greg Jenkins]

all along, they suspected their mother was murdered by someone unknown.

[Podcast Host]

But the finding from the coronial inquest

[Greg Jenkins]

fell short of that. We've been dragged through the mud for the last year and a half and for her to come in and, you know, give us three minutes to end with an open verdict. Verdict is absolutely disgusting. It is so disappointing. And there is absolutely no justice in Malaysia for Mum or anyone, as it seems, after what the family has gone through, this is a bloody disgrace. So during that inquest, it was just a platform for everyone to basically say, you know, we did our best. And it's like, well, your best isn't good enough because you've gone against policy

[Podcast Host]

and we still need a person of interest or something. You know, there's still actual investigating needs to be done.

[Greg Jenkins]

There's still a murderer walking loose in Penang.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Greg Jenkins]

And they tried to hand over, like, there was a bag and they said, these were your mum's remains that we're going to hand over. And I. I just had a feeling inside. It's like, I want to have a look inside. So my sister was there, so me and her went up. The police tried to stop it, but the judge thankfully allowed it. And I opened it up and I looked inside and I said to Jen, like, my sister, have a look at that. What does that look like? And she looked at it, she says, that looks like dirt. And I said, 100%. That's just gravel. So I brought that up and I said, that's not bones, that's dirt. And they said, no, no, it's crushed bones. It's like, no, it's not. So then we had to then get the DNA specialist on the video conference who confirmed that, no, it's. That's dirt. She goes, we brush off the bones of all the dirt and then that's. That's what was left.

[Podcast Host]

God, every step of the way, isn't it? Every step of the way, yeah.

[Greg Jenkins]

When we went out to visit the site, the police went to the wrong place. It's like, how can you go to the wrong spot during an inquest? So then I had to then lead the judge and the police to where the actual spot is. And it's like, you, as the investigation officer, should know where the crime scene apparently is. So what I did was I put in an application to get a revision of the last coronial inquest. That's being delayed three times already and it'll be 7th of February is the next one. The problem with that is, and it was very intentional, I believe, by the Malaysian police. So the judge asked for certain evidence, like we wanted, like the police diary, the Uber tracker, a Few other things. And we seen that some of the things that were taken, like a photo, for instance, all photos, the police removed timestamps. So every police photo, the photographer was told, remove this timestamp. That in itself is wrong because now we believe some of the photos and the drawings were done just prior to the. To the inquest. But when the judge called for the evidence to be handed in, nothing was ever handed in. Now, as part of the revision process, I can only ask the judge to revise the evidence that was given to the inquest, not the stuff that was asked for but never handed in. And the biggest one was, like the police diary, like the police diary will outline the lack of. Should be. The lack of investigation was actually done.

[Podcast Host]

Is the coroner critical of them, of the way they've acted so far?

[Greg Jenkins]

Not yet. We're hoping this coroner can see the real truth in how the investigation happened.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. So you've got to wait for their findings, for this inquest to end and then for them to deliver their findings.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So I'm running two separate court cases at the moment. So first one is the revision of the coronal inquest and then the other one is suing for negligence. So negligence on the part of the developer and the project manager. So the project manager admitted during the coronial inquest that he found Mun's remains, picked them up, moved them and rebury them, and ordered the workers to never discuss it again. The reason for that is to protect the construction site. So again with that, Taboo can't buy property, the statute of remains on it, they contaminated a crime scene, they tampered with evidence and they hid a crime from the police. The reason why I can't let this go as well is because there's the three year statutory limitation on suing the Malaysian police for negligence. So if I drop the case now, I can't pick it up later. If I hit lotto, for instance, so if I stop it now, it's all done, that's it. There's no further steps that we can actually take. And that's why I have to keep it going, because, one, it's paving a way for everyone else and it's also allowing us to assist other families in especially Southeast Asian countries to be able to go, this is what you can potentially expect. This is what you can expect, this is what you can do.

[Podcast Host]

God. Well, you've really opened my eyes, I tell you. And I, you know, I've traveled a fair bit in Southeast Asia. I love it. And which is not to say that I won't keep traveling there, but you've really opened my eyes to the system, I'll say. That's what I'll call it.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

And also though, the system, you know, in Australia that doesn't support families in your situation, I just, I would never have guessed how little support you'd get from the Australian government.

[Greg Jenkins]

Neither did I and I was quite naive at the start to go, well, the DFAT will jump in and will. Will help us or afp, like it's a police investigation, they'll jump in and help us. The Australian government will come in and say something and help us. You know, the police force in that country are going to do the best to get the best outcome and all of that is, is non existent. It's just really, really frustrating even trying to get media on board. Like I've been told by news outlets before that Mum's case, they told me Mum's case isn't click worthy. And what they mean by click worthy is it's not getting the online clicks.

[Podcast Host]

I think it's eminently click worthy and that's a gross expression and a gross way to do business. But we're talking about an Australian citizen who was snatched off the street, you know, like, and a police force that's not interested in helping find who murdered her. I would think that's an interesting story for Australians who. A lot of Australians like me travel around that region a lot.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Podcast Host]

What do you think is the end game here, honestly, in your heart, what do you believe is going to happen here?

[Greg Jenkins]

There's a couple of angles that I'm trying to work. So the first one is making sure that someone is accountable for what happened with Mum. Mum, like in my heart and in my mind, Mum's death is not going to be another statistic that Malaysia just forgets about. So before Mum went missing, there was just under 11,000 people missing, unsolved. 6,447 of them were under the age of 18 and the police refused to do any searching because again, missing persons is a family matter, not a police

[Podcast Host]

matter, which is very convenient for the slave trade.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So that's one thing I want to try and do, is make them accountable. And no one's ever pushed the police this far because one, it costs a lot of money. Two, the stress and the pressure that police put on you is phenomenal. So when I get over there, I know that I'm going to get watched, for instance. So I'm still trying to fight that angle. I'm trying to get the smart traveler changed as well. For Malaysia they changed it for a little bit, but now it's just gone back to a blanket crime and kidnapping hop happen across Malaysia.

[Podcast Host]

Right, okay. You want more detail?

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah. And then the other one is I submitted a draft bill to Frank Congello to see if we can get changes made to the victims of crime. So with victims of crime, there is nothing to support anyone that's a victim of crime, like an Australian that's had something happen overseas. Nothing in place at all. Whereas if I get found guilty on a drug charge, then more doors open up for me. So, you know, I can apply to get, you know, legal aid, counseling, etc. Etc. But for us there's absolutely nothing in place.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, you're right. I think about the outpouring of support, both sort of emotional support, financial support and professional support for the Bali Nine or, you know, people who are imprisoned overseas. There's generally a support wagon that swings into place, isn't there? That's very, a very practical support group.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. Because one thing that was powerful for us was anytime Penny Wong said something, we got a little bit of forward momentum.

[Podcast Host]

Okay.

[Greg Jenkins]

So anytime it highlighted the negative side to what we're dealing with, we would then get a little bit of forward movement. But for whatever reason, the Prime Minister just doesn't want to touch anything.

[Podcast Host]

And also I think I'm thinking about when Australians are imprisoned overseas oftentimes and most notably for drug offences, the human rights people get involved. You know, Julian Burnside will be over there and he'll be representing them for free. And you know, it'll be all of that sort of assistance as well. But. Yep, doesn't seem to be coming your way.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. And we're not saying like our case is more important than, than anyone else. It's just anyone that's, that's overseas that are caught up in. Yeah, whatever it is, should be able to get assistance. And another big thing too, just quickly is the South Australian Forensic Unit. A massive shout out to them and the way that they've handled themselves. I know police get like a pretty bad rap.

[Podcast Host]

You've definitely put it into perspective today.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the. There's a Senior Constable Trevor Schneider, he's been absolutely phenomenal and the forensic team. So I brought mum's remains home in a box. So when they handed me Mum's remains, it was unsealed. So they told me as part of their like importing or exporting human remains out of the country, it's got to be triple backed.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. And usually from memory it feels like usually it's in a coffin and there's a big, like they're escorted home and all that nut.

[Greg Jenkins]

So mum's stuff. First up, they told me to break the bones. And if I break the bones and then put them into a jar and then just wrap up the jar, that's less packing that you have to do. And it was a real, it was a mind numbing experience in terms, like I was fairly numb, like, like in my heart it's like, this is just heartbreaking for me. But you have to go in, you have to check it. They just laid out on the table and then you check these are your mum's remains. Then I gotta stand there holding a piece of paper so they can take a photo of it. And then they just pick everything up and they found a formaldehyde box from their storeroom and they just emptied that and then just put all of mum's remains into the box and then hand over to me.

[Podcast Host]

And that was it with the advice that you should snap them to make them easier to pack. That's unbelievable.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, so I had to go to, I drove to KL and basically did a final tour for mum. So put the box in the front seat and then just drove around to places where I knew she'd been before. It sounds silly.

[Podcast Host]

No, not to me.

[Greg Jenkins]

But yeah. But then I had to repack mum's remains and I guess the, the beauty of that, and I don't believe everything happens for a reason, but as I was packing mum's remains, I just had to go to a hardware store, buy bags and seals and tape just to make sure everything was, was proper. I noticed marks on mum's bones and I also, like, they gave me mum's possessions in a bag, like just a garbage bag. But I noticed as I was going through mum's possessions, her sunglasses were smashed on the left hand side. And the fact that I found skull fragments plus marks on mum's bones and then handed that to the South Australian Forensic Science Unit who were phenomenal. Like, the police rang me and they actually talked about mum's remains as if mum was a human again and said, we just want to take care of your mum. Are we able to? And as soon as I landed that, that same day, they're on the phone saying, hey, we just want to get the process started. Is it okay if we come and collect your mum and we'll look after her and we'll put her in a safe place, et cetera? And it was just brilliant. And Trevor Schneider basically followed us through the whole way and he helped write a statement for me to try and get a current LingQuest in South Australia as well. But by noticing those marks and the smashed glasses, they were able to confirm, heartbreakingly, that Mum suffered from blunt force trauma at the time of her death, which confirmed what we thought all along, which was murder. I can't submit that to the coronal inquest in Malaysia. I can attempt to. Yep. It cost me 50,000. $50,000. And they can turn around and say

[Podcast Host]

no to it because it's not from their forensics.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, because all we're trying to do is say that Mum, during the inquest is Mum could have been murdered by persons known or unknown. But like I said, every step of the way, when you get something, even though it's. It's pretty horrific knowing your mum was brutally murdered, it's still like a step forward to go, all right, Coop, we've got this. Let's take a step forward, let's submit it. No, you can't. It'll cost you 50,000. It could put the judge off site. So everything's a. Emotional as well.

[Podcast Host]

Did your dad.

[Greg Jenkins]

He had dementia.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, the poor bugger. Right.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So he was usually locked in a police station or he was in Geelong or. Yeah, wherever his brain took him at the start of the. The dementia. So he was good as gold. Like, he was driving. We were like, we're big horse racing fans, so, like, we go to the races. As soon as I found Mum's remains, instantly, like I'm talking, within a week, he was in a wheelchair and couldn't stand up. It was like his body had just gone, all right, hope's gone. That's it for me. And then he just declined so rapidly with dementia, he. He would often put himself back to that day. So it used to cost me 400 bucks, but he would smash windows and break out, or he would sit there and watch them do the code to get out the door.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, of his nursing home.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. And so he would remember the code and then just push his wheelchair and out he goes. He ended up going 4Ks one day. I don't know how he did it because there's roots and all in the path, but he just takes the. Pulls the legs off and then just uses his feet to, like, Fred Flintstone. And, yeah, he just. He was buggered. And then, yeah, he managed to get himself out of the wheelchair and just sat at this park bench and luckily a lady stopped and said, are you okay? Are you lost? Or anything. Can he goes, no, I'm just waiting for my wife. She's just gone to see her mum and then we're going out for dinner and he mentioned Penang and she's obviously called the police to go, hey. I think he's. He's done himself a mischief. But, yeah, he constantly either tried to break out to go meet Mum or would try and break out to go protect my sister and her boys to make sure nothing bad happens to them. So it was. It was real hard to see. It's more trying for, I think, my sister as well, because she, like, the deal was, like, because I don't have kids, I went over to Malaysia and I would do the searching and she would come over whenever she could break away from the kids and work and then she was there looking after dad. So she would then get the information from me and then would have to then try and process it herself, but then process it to pass it on to dad and then deal with. With that emotion. So she's had to. I've. I think I had the easier job of doing all the searching and that, whereas she had to deal with the emotional side of her and dad. Like I said, it's a very isolating journey and like I said, friends just drop off and family just drop off and people that don't understand why you keep going. And I'm trying to tell them, like, if I didn't keep going, I wouldn't have found Mum's remains. If I didn't keep going, I wouldn't have found out that she was murdered. If I didn't keep going, we wouldn't have the ability to have a coronal inquest. If we didn't keep going, we wouldn't have been able to have a revision of the inquest. And if we didn't keep going, we wouldn't be able to, you know, sue for negligence and then start opening up. You know, if we didn't keep going, we wouldn't be able to give assistance to other families and if we didn't keep going, we couldn't get changes as a smart traveler. So there's always, like, people just don't understand until you're caught up in that. That actual situation. Like, it's hard to fathom why you would continually spend all your time and effort and energy into something where it could turn around and. And get no result from.

[Podcast Host]

No, but you have many results, so congratulations on everything you have achieved, because I can understand how it's hard to. For other people to even see sometimes. But you are achieving. You are chipping away at something that seems impossible, that a lot of us would have just would have given up on or wouldn't. Wouldn't have. I don't know that I would have thought as clearly as you did, I maybe would have believed the police and thought, oh, they know what they're doing, they know what they're talking about. Yeah. So congratulations on sticking with it.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate people giving the time to listen to Mum's story. And I'm running a social media campaign at the moment which is on TikTok, on my Facebook, on Instagram. Like, there's so many people that can learn from our bad experience. And then from that, my number was passed out. There was a lad that went missing in Bali on 8th November and his mum reached out to me and I was able to give her advice on, you know, where to look, what to do, etc, and.

[Podcast Host]

Was that Jackson Parker?

[Greg Jenkins]

That's the one, yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Who was found alive and well.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yes. Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. So having to keep pushing this far, we can now give that advice to go, hey, like. Because when, when I first started, I had no idea what to do and it was me, Troy and Ben sitting around to go, all right, let's try this, let's give this a go.

[Podcast Host]

Well, this is an incredible legacy and I mean, obviously I didn't know your mom, but I have to assume she'd be very proud of you for what? Not only what you've done, but the way your altruism, like, you share her idea, her ethical kind of approach to helping other people always.

[Greg Jenkins]

Yeah. And that, that's, that's probably what we're trying to set up the foundation for under Mum's name is exactly that, to. To help people that. That need it and that. That carries on Mum's legacy of what she left behind.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, it definitely does, yeah.

[Greg Jenkins]

And hopefully get some support from the bikies.

[Podcast Host]

I was just thinking that. I was just thinking, I hope you brung the bikies. Tell them what's going on.

[Greg Jenkins]

No, definitely not.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you to our guest, Greg Jenkins. Greg runs a social media campaign that documents his fight for justice. He also supports other families facing similar tragedies. There are links to his socials and a GoFundMe campaign in the show. Notes to this episode. If you need support after listening to this podcast, you can call Lifeline on 13, 11, 14 or contact 1-800-Respect on 1-800-737-732 or 1-800-Respect.org au Indigenous Australians can contact 13 Yarn on 139276 or 13 yarn.org au.

[Greg Jenkins]

The producers of this podcast recognize the traditional owners of the land on which it's recorded. They pay respect to the Aboriginal elders past, present, and those emerging.