The body of the man believed to have abducted and decapitated a toddler at the Klang River in Kuala Lumpur has been found after a two-day search.
Selangor Fire and Rescue Department assistant operations director Mohd Sani Harul confirmed the recovery of the body at 4pm near the banks of Sungai Petaling Jaya in Sunway Selangor.
Azizan also said police have confirmed that the body found was that of the suspect.
The man had abducted Siti Soffea Emelda, who was two-and-a-half years old, from the Kota Raya shopping mall in the city on Thursday.
Police believe that the suspect had attempted to rape the girl, and hit her when she struggled.
Mohd Sani said the Fire and Rescue Department received a call at 2.50pm from a member of the public.
"The complainant had spotted a man's body floating in the river," he said, adding that emergency services were immediately despatched to the scene, located near the Sunway toll plaza.
The body of a man, believed to be in his 20s, was fished out of the river by divers.
Police took possession of the body, which has been sent to the hospital for a post-mortem.
In Thursday's incident, closed-circuit television video footage at Kota Raya shopping mall showed a man taking Siti Soffea away forcibly.
The footage also revealed that a security guard had witnessed the scene but did not stop the man from taking away the girl.
Siti Soffea's mother, Siti Salmy Suib, 32, had left her daughter with friends on the fourth floor of the mall while she went to the toilet.
When Siti Salmy returned, Siti Soffea was nowhere to be seen. A frantic search failed to reveal the girl's whereabouts.
In the incident which shocked the nation, two witnesses said they saw a man carrying a toddler while making his way through the long grass by the river banks.
The eyewitnesses, from Sabah, saw the suspect, who is believed to have been recently released from prison, taking Siti Soffea across the Klang River.
They saw the suspect pushing Siti Soffea on her back and striking her with an object when she struggled.
Upon seeing the suspect strangling the victim while pushing her onto the ground, they alerted auxiliary police at the nearby Public Bank building.
The suspect jumped into the river in an attempt to escape.
It is believed that he was carried away by strong currents, prompting a two-day search operation.
Siti Soffea's body was found with the head lying nearby. She was clad in a pair of white pants and nappy.
Her body was claimed by her mother from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital mortuary yesterday and buried at the Batu Muda Muslim cemetery in Gombak. – May 31, 2014.
