A Needle in the Haystack: Finding Anna Jenkins *Re-Issue*

**Greg Jenkins** (0:00)
Like it sounds silly, but you feel guilty sleeping or getting food. I burnt out quite a bit, but I would use that time when I'm back at home to quickly try and get as much rest as I can, as much food and go back, because I felt as though like if mum needs my help, then I can't be sitting at a restaurant having fun or having a drink because that's unfair.
I would say the first three years was still panic mode in that there was hope that we could potentially find mum.

**Meshel Laurie** (0:36)
Usually, when we leave the country, our mothers nag us to be careful and to stay safe.
Anna Jenkins had more to worry about than most moms because when her son Greg went traveling, it was often with the Australian Armed Forces. But it was Anna who met with foul play on a trip away. In 2017, Anna Jenkins and her husband Francis traveled to her home country of Malaysia as they had many times before. But this time, only Francis made it home. With little help from the local authorities, their son Greg ended up launching his own investigation. He learned a lot about the dark side of Malaysia and eventually Anna's remains and personal belongings were recovered on a building site. Greg Jenkins joins us on Australian True Crime to tell his story.
This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.

**Greg Jenkins** (1:47)
So dad was in the Defense Force. He did a couple of tours of Vietnam, and then he changed over to be a carpenter, and they had some tasks on him, but it was some rotations. And through meeting a couple of the Malaysians over there, he then, he got hooked up with mum's sister to go out on a date, went to go pick her up, and then liked mum a lot better, which caused a bit of a rift. So he ended up taking mum out, and then it just, it went from strength to strength there.

**Meshel Laurie** (2:17)
How many kids do they have?

**Greg Jenkins** (2:20)
Two. One really intelligent, beautiful, handsome bloke, and then another sister. No. No, so, yes, there are two kids. So my sister was born in Penang, and then mum was pregnant, and then flew to Adelaide, where they settled to have me. Love growing up there. So we moved out to the country, home of McLeod's daughters out at Freeling. Wow.
That's all it's got for it.
You had two pubs and sport.

**Meshel Laurie** (2:55)
Great.

**Greg Jenkins** (2:56)
But, you know, absolutely loved it, like out in the farmland. So we had free rein to do whatever we wanted in terms of, you know, riding our bikes.
And Adelaide itself is like a big country town. Like it's fairly slow moving, but as kids, it's absolutely brilliant to grow up in. And we had quite a lot of fun.

**Meshel Laurie** (3:16)
Sounds lovely. And it sounds very different to Malaysia, obviously. I know that both, our cultures are very different. Did your mum grow up in a busy city, like in Penang, or where did she grow up in Malaysia?

**Greg Jenkins** (3:28)
Nah, so she grew up in a place called Parrot Boonta, which is on the mainland. It's probably about an hour away from Butterworth. So she just grew up a very, very simple life. I think she started working before she hit double figures.

**Meshel Laurie** (3:43)
Wow, what a different life for her in Adelaide.

**Greg Jenkins** (3:46)
Yeah, massively. So she still had her Malaysian ways over there. So like when she come back to Adelaide, like obviously her cooking was phenomenal.

**Meshel Laurie** (3:56)
Yeah.

**Greg Jenkins** (3:57)
I remember I got some weird looks when I used to go to school and mum would put like chillies in there as a snack. I was just sitting there just chewing on a chili.
Just all of the old brooms where they had just hundreds of those thin straw sticks.

**Meshel Laurie** (4:13)
Yeah.

**Greg Jenkins** (4:14)
She'd only use that to sweep up both carpet and the floor. But yeah, it was a good mix of the two cultures.

**Meshel Laurie** (4:22)
Did she go back to Malaysia to visit much, her and your dad?

**Greg Jenkins** (4:25)
Yeah. So they would go about usually four times a year. So mum's mum, so my grandma, she was over there in a nursing home. So the rest of the family, so mum's family split and they just stopped communicating. So no one looked after grandma. So mum did that. So mum was on a pension and everything that she made, she would just send over to grandma to make sure she was looked after.