Police confirmed yesterday that the body found near the Juara Turtle Project camp on Pulau Tioman on June 4 is that of missing British wildlife conservation volunteer Gareth David Huntley.
Pahang police chief Senior Comm Datuk Sharifudding Ab Ghani said DNA tests conducted on the remains positively matched a blood sample from Huntley’s mother, Janet Southwell.
“The maternity probability was 99.9999% based on the short tandem repeat database of the Malaysian races of Malay, Chinese and Indians,” he was quoted as saying by The Star Online.
“This meant that the body was Gareth David Huntley.”
On June 4, search and rescue personnel found a body floating in a pond by the Mentawak River on Tioman, near a kayak storage unit on the grounds of the Juara Turtle Porject campsite where 34-year old Huntley had been volunteering before his disappearance on May 27.
Due to the decomposed nature of the the body, investigators were unable to determine if it was Huntley. His mother, Jane Southwell, was flown over to Kuantan’s Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital on June 5 to help identify the body.
In response to a report by British newspaper The Telegraph claiming Huntley was involved in a fight shortly before he went missing, Pahang CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Mohd Zakaria Ahmad said the report was not true and was mere speculation.
“I was in Pulau Tioman on Saturday and I interviewed several witnesses myself. What they told me contradicts what the foreign reporter wrote. That report is inaccurate,” said SAC Mohd Zakaria when contacted by The Star Online yesterday.
The Telegraph article claimed Huntley might have been murdered following a fight he allegedly had before he disappeared. It also quoted Kampung Juara chief Ab Razib Ali Awang as saying most locals believe something sinister befell Huntley. An unnamed local tour guide was reported as saying Huntley’s throat had been slit.
SAC Mohd Zakaria had previously said the post-mortem on Huntley’s body revealed no injuries.
The police, however, have not ruled out the possibility of foul play, but said it was too early in the investigation for them to comment further.
See Also:
Search for missing British wildlife volunteer in Tioman intensifies
Army joins search for missing British wildlife volunteer in Tioman
Body, believed to be of missing British wildlife volunteer, found in pond on Tioman
Gareth Huntley’s mother to identify his body at Kuantan hospital
