SHAH ALAM: The mobile phone belonging to Zalina Shaharah Azman, 58, a former newsreader at a television station, was turned off on Nov 20 last year, said Shah Alam district police chief ACP Mohd Iqbal Ibrahim.

He said that based on the investigation police believed that Zalina, 58, might have disappeared earlier than Nov 29, the date that she was reported missing.

"We wouldn't know that she had gone missing if her son didn't try to contact her," he told Bernama during a visit to Zalina's house with the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) chairman Senator Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi.

"Zalina may have gone missing earlier...we checked and found that on Nov 20 her phone was turned off (no record of outgoing or incoming calls), whether it was because the battery had run out, we are not sure," he said.

According to him, Zalina's house was found to be messy because it was under renovation to be converted into a gallery.

Earlier, in a statement, Mohd Iqbal said police were looking for the workers involved in the renovation project to assist in the investigation.

He said police have called in six individuals to record their statements since she was reported missing.

Previously Mohd Iqbal said police believed that the television personality was still in the country as there was no record of her leaving the country.

Police received a missing person report involving Zalina from her son Mikhael Norman, 33, on Nov 29 last year after he failed to get in touch with Zalina since Nov 24 to inform her that her father had been admitted to the hospital.

-- BERNAMA