BATU PAHAT: Azizah Ahmad, the sister-in-law of Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya, said she began to worry for the latter’s safety only after hearing media news of her disappearance.
“It wasn’t until the media got wind of her disappearance and news began to spread that I began to worry,” she said, adding that she hoped that Sosilawati, 47, was safe and well.
Azizah, 37, said she last saw Sosilawati a week before the fasting month began.
“She came back to visit my mother-in-law and the family in the first week of August. She seemed her usual self,” she said.
Azizah added that when she heard about Sosilawati’s disappearance on Aug 31, she had hoped that she was on an emergency trip.
Sosilawati’s mother, Yatemi Abdul Rahman, 80, said her daughter would usually come home to Kampung Seri Menanti, Seri Medan a few days before Hari Raya and take care of all preparations before other siblings and relatives arrived.
“She is usually the one who brings the spirit of Hari Raya to our family; things would not be the same if she were not around,” she said.
It was reported that Sosilawati went missing on Aug 30 along with her driver Kamarudin Shansudin, 44, her lawyer Ahmad Kamil Karim, 32, and her financial adviser Noorhisham Mohammad, 38.
Sosilawati’s children have since lodged a missing persons report at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters. Her BMW sports utility vehicle was discovered near the Angsana flats along USJ1 in Subang Jaya on Monday night.
IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan said police could still not establish if this was a kidnapping, but police were recording statements from all the four missing persons’ families.
Sosilawati is believed to be worth RM100mil. She has 300 outlets selling beauty products in Singapore, Brunei and Thailand. She has four daughters and two sons.
She was once married to singer Nasharuddin Elias, popularly known as Nash. She divorced him after 10 months of marriage and filed a RM1.38mil demand from Nash.
When she was caught for khalwat in January this year, she claimed that she had married her partner in Thailand in November.
In 2007, Sosilawati was fined RM2,500 for possession of beauty products containing the scheduled poison hydroquinone, after pleading guilty to having 32 bottles of toners in one of her branches in Diamond Square in Kuala Lumpur.
On March 13, she was fined RM1,800 for a similar offence committed at another branch in Kampung Baru.
