Nurin murder probe: Swallowed SIM card finally comes out but is it any use?

By : Lee Shi-Ian

PETALING JAYA: Five days of patience paid off for police as the subscriber identity module (SIM) card swallowed by an Indonesian suspect in the murder of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin was flushed out yesterday.

The 23-year-old woman, who had frustrated police with her play-acting and “fainting spells” when they attempted to question her, was discharged from the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) at 12.30pm yesterday.

She was discharged after police ascertained that the SIM card had indeed come out. The card is considered essential evidence to the murder investigation.

She was seen being led away under guard from the hospital and at 3pm, was produced at the magistrate’s court, where police obtained a six-day extension to the remand order against her. She is now being held at the district police headquarters.

It was reported that the woman, who had been warded at UMMC since Saturday, had refused to eat any food, subsisting on liquids and intravenous drip.

Attempts to flush the SIM card out of her system had been unsuccessful and she had also refused to consume laxatives which hospital authorities attempted to feed her.

Police will now have to examine the SIM card to see whether its data can still be retrieved.

The card, which has a microchip made of copper and other metals embedded inside, is very fragile.

Once the card is damaged, any data stored is irretrievable. After going through the entire process of the human digestive system, there may be little hope the card can be saved and data retrieved.

The easiest method of retrieving the information from the card would be to dry it and try using it in a mobile phone. The other way would be to use a smart card reader attached to a computer to access the data.

The woman, who has been confirmed as an illegal immigrant by police, was arrested in Nilai on Sept 29 by officers from the city police headquarters.

Shortly after her arrest, it was discovered that she had swallowed a SIM card. Police obtained a seven-day remand order for the woman before admitting her into UMMC.

During her arrest, police seized two mobile phones, four SIM cards and a prepaid starter pack. Checks later revealed the pack had the same number used to make calls to police through the RakanCop hotline.

X-ray tests carried out on the woman on Monday confirmed the presence of the SIM card in her stomach. But her refusal to co-operate meant police had to wait until yesterday when the SIM card was finally flushed out.

Nurin had gone missing after she went to a night market near her home in Wangsa Maju on Aug 20. Her body was found almost a month later in a sports bag which was left in a building in Petaling Utama.

So far police have detained six suspects. Five have been released, leaving only the Indonesian woman. Police also released the photofit of a man and woman on Tuesday, but so far, no suspects have been picked up.

- NSTOnline