THE family of Indonesian woman Ruth Sitepu, who went missing with her husband Pastor Joshua Hilmy, marked the anniversary of her disappearance today with a plea to whoever took her for the return of her remains.

“Ruth is a human being. She is our sister. She has family. Even if they met with tragedy, we just want closure. Please return her remains to us.

“People do not and cannot just vanish into thin air, with no trace,” the family said in a statement issued today.

Ruth and Joshua were last seen leaving their home in Petaling Jaya at night on November 30, 2016.

The family said they had not heard from Ruth and their brother-in-law since.

“We have not been able to reach them either. Nobody seems to know their whereabouts.

“Ruth is a responsible and caring person. (She) came to Malaysia to work and support us. Instead, she went missing along with her husband. It is unlike her to have disappeared intentionally. Even after getting married and moving to Malaysia, she regularly kept in touch with us (her family) via messages and calls,” the family said.

They thanked the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) for conducting a public inquiry into Ruth and Joshua’s disappearance and hoped for light to be shed on the matter when the inquiry concludes.

The inquiry began on February 18, 2020, three years after the couple disappeared. Police investigations prior to that were inconclusive.

The family also thanked Indonesia’s Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence for its work, as well as the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.

Ruth and Joshua’s disappearance was reported by a friend, Peter Pormannan, who has known the couple since 2012. He lodged a police report on March 6, 2017 after not hearing from Joshua for months.

Ruth’s family also came to Malaysia to lodge an official missing persons report on February 28, 2018. 

More than year later, police claimed there were simply no leads. 

Ruth and Joshua’s disappearance is one of three high-profile missing persons cases. The other two involve Pastor Raymond Koh and social activist Amri Che Mat.

Suhakam inquiries into these cases have concluded that both were most likely taken by the police’s Special Branch, and have classified them as cases of enforced disappearance, whereby the state or state actors are involved. – November 30, 2021.