Pages from Zara’s book missing, inquest told

Zara Qairina Mahathir was pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, on July 17, 2025, a day after she was found unconscious in a drain near her school dormitory in Papar. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: The Kota Kinabalu coroner’s court heard today that many pages from Zara Qairina Mahathir’s green PVC-covered book titled “Love and Peace” were missing.

Handwriting and document examination expert Linthini Gannetion, appearing as the 74th witness, told coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan that loose handwritten sheets in evidence, marked Y1 to Y15, were torn from the book, which was marked as WK9.

During examination by counsel Luqman Syazwan Zabidi, she said the evidence suggested the order in which the pages were removed.

“Sheets Y2 and Y7, which are a corresponding pair, were removed first. Y5, Y6 and Y8, together with their corresponding pages, were subsequently torn together,” Borneo Post reported her as saying today.

Linthini further explained that since the integrity of the book’s binding had been compromised, the corresponding pages then fell loose, making them easier to remove.

She said one page also appeared to have been ripped sideways, as a large portion of the corresponding page was still intact.

She could not rule out elements of tampering, as some of the remaining pages in WK9 seemed to have been altered or removed.

She noted that Y1 to Y15 had mixed authorship, and she could not conclusively determine the handwriting patterns because of the absence of contemporaneous handwriting samples.

Zara, 13, was pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu on July 17, 2025, a day after being found unconscious in a drain near her school dormitory in Papar at about 4am.

The inquest continues tomorrow.