If these walls could talk: Zalina’s bungalow in Section 3, Shah Alam, is found to be unkempt and unsecured.
SHAH ALAM: The house remains neglected with the compound covered by thick undergrowth.
Except for the thousands of mosquitoes, the entire place is silent and abandoned.
Zalina as she was seen as a TV presenter in her heyday.The entrance is unsecured, which leaves it open to intrusions by just about anyone.
That was the scene The Star discovered during a recent visit to the last known residence of former TV3 news anchor Zalina Azman.
Her disappearance at the age of 58 in November 2021 remains baffling three years on.
“The case remains open. Our investigations to trace her whereabouts are ongoing,” said Shah Alam deputy police chief Supt Ramsay Embol.
He said there were no clues that could lead police to solve the case.
“We are hopeful of the public providing the right information to us,” he said when contacted.
During the evening visit by The Star, no neighbours were seen in the quiet stretch of bungalows except for some students from a hostel next door.
Three boys were seen clearing a bed of weeds growing outside Zalina’s house but they declined to engage in conversation when approached.
As for Zalina’s friends and former workmates, they are bewildered to this day.
“We are puzzled. We hope she could contact at least one of us to tell us that she is okay,” said a former colleague, Zahir Kelvin Ong Abdullah.
He recalled their last conversation over the phone just a few months before she went missing.
“Zalina sounded just the same as she always did, jovial and down-to-earth,” he said.
At the time of their conversation, Zalina was out for tea with another of their colleague Datuk Ras Adiba Mohd Radzi.
“Unfortunately, I could not join them,” he said.
He said he and Zalina had worked together in the 1990s for TV3.
“After I left in 2000, we continued to keep in touch every now and then,” said Zahir, who has since returned to TV3 and is a programme host.
Ras Adiba said she had reached out to Zalina’s family but learnt that there was no positive development in her case.
“As her friend, my gut feeling tells me she is somewhere out there, somewhere in South-East Asia. Maybe she is just ‘monitoring’ (the situation).
“I just pray that whoever is with her or even she herself could give me a call or drop me a message to say she is fine because we are worried about her.
“I hope she knows how much we want her to come home. We miss her terribly and I am sure her family misses her even more,” she said.
Ras Adiba hopes the public will be on the lookout for her and notify the authorities.
“There had been people who spotted someone who resembled her but unfortunately, it was not her. However, please do not stop looking for her,” she said.
Broadcasting director-general Datuk Suhaimi Sulaiman, who is also an ex-colleague of Zalina, has similar concerns.
“If you are reading this, I hope you will reach out to us,” he said.
All three of them described Zalina as friendly and cheerful, though reserved and a “private person”.
Zalina’s absence was discovered in November 2021 when her son and a relative went to her home in Shah Alam after she was not contactable for almost a week.
Her car was parked there.
Police later learnt that Zalina’s mobile phone was last active on Nov 20, 2021.
Those with information on her whereabouts are urged to contact the Shah Alam police at 03-5519 4622.
