Two men have been remanded by the Kota Tinggi court in connection with the death of Estonian model Regina Soosalu on Pulau Rawa off Mersing on July 1.
The model and her boyfriend were involved in a drug case in January and were even brought to court in May to face charges.
The 29-year-old model and Tunku Alang Reza Tunku Ibrahim were charged in the magistrate’s court with possessing 5.84gm of cannabis in Jalan Serigala near Taman Century in Johor at 11pm on Jan 11.
They pleaded not guilty on May 12 and were released on bail of RM7,000 in total.
Their lawyer, Bustaman Menon Abdul Hamid Menon, said the case was ongoing and was last mentioned on May 25.
Meanwhile, police have detained Tunku Alang Reza to assist in the murder investigation.
The 28-year-old Tunku Alang Reza has been remanded for a week along with a friend known only as Augustine, 30, with the custody order obtained from the Kota Tinggi magistrate’s court yesterday morning.
Their arrest brings the number of people remanded in connection with the murder of the model to seven.
Sources said those arrested earlier were a bartender, two boatmen, a resort manager and a “friend of Tunku Alang Reza”, who were all at Pulau Rawa when Soosalu was found dead.
Soosalu had allegedly been taking a stroll along the beach on Pulau Rawa on July 1 when tragedy struck.
Her body was later found on the beach and close friends in the modelling industry only discovered about her death about six days later.
Soosalu was initially thought to have drowned when her body was found on the beach hours after she had arrived on the island from Kuala Lumpur where she lived.
However, police are now investigating the case as murder after “suspicious wounds” were found on her body.
Johor CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Hasnan Hassan said the post-mortem was still ongoing.
“Samples from her body have since been sent to the lab for testing. Other details cannot be revealed until the tests are completed,” he said.
More to come.