KUALA LUMPUR: Noor Suzaily Mukhtar left her rented home in Kampung Baru at 7.45am on Oct 7, 2000 and took a bus to go to work at the Pantai Medical Centre in Klang.
The 24-year-old, a graduate from Demonfort University in United Kingdom, was on her way to work as a computer engineer, which she had described as her "dream job".
Hailing from Kangar, Perlis, she was the second of four children.
Watching her leave their home that fateful morning nearly 20 years ago was her housemate Rosamliza Umar.
It would be the last time Rosamliza saw her friend alive.
Noor Suzaily boarded an Ekspress Kiara bus, bearing the vehicle registration number WDE 4256. The bus was headed to Port Klang from the Klang bus terminal in Kuala Lumpur.
The bus arrived in Klang about 8.15am. Most of the passengers had alighted the bus, except for her and a Bangladeshi national — who later got off at a bus stop before reaching the last destination. She was now the only passenger on the bus.
Noor Suzaily, however, never arrived at her workplace. The bus driver, Hanafi Mat Hassan, had diverted his route and took her to Jalan Bukit Tinggi.
Hanafi, 34, was a three-time divorcee, and a former convict. Police records showed that he had been wanted for another rape case in Mentakab, Pahang, in 1988.
In 1994, he was also charged with criminal breach of trust, and was convicted of a robbery case in Terengganu in 1996.
Reports said Hanafi, from Bachok, Kelantan, had only started working for the bus company 10 days earlier.
One of the witnesses was A. Devan, an 18-year-old student cycling to a tuition centre. He saw a stationary bus along Lorong Pegaga in Klang, and suspected that something was amiss.
This was where the sexual assault began.
Devan saw a topless woman inside the bus, frantically slamming her hands on the tinted window of the passenger door. The bus driver then shooed Devan away.
With the bus beginning to move away, Devan gave chase. Soon after, three more people joined in the pursuit — a motorcyclist, a man in his 50s, and a driving school instructor.
All four followed the bus until it reached the Taman Chi Liung roundabout, before it turned into Jalan Sambau.
Devan courageously approached the bus and saw Hanafi walking towards the driver's seat while hitching up his trousers.
Hanafi noticed the four men and quickly reversed the bus, which was said to have headed back towards the Taman Chi Liung roundabout.
It was reported that Hanafi had stripped Noor Suzaily, tied her hands with her headscarf, raped and sodomised her. After he was done, Hanafi used the same scarf to strangle her.
Hanafi then dumped her nude and lifeless body out of the bus near a construction site near Jalan Bukit Tinggi and drove off.
A member of the public spotted the body later that afternoon and called the police. The scarf was still around the neck and a shoe was dangling from one leg. She had no identification documents on her.
The body was taken to the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah hospital, where a post-mortem revealed that the woman was raped, sodomised and strangled to death.
The report also showed that the deceased had suffered a staggering 44 injuries to the body, including a broken neck.
Hanafi was arrested three days later about 2.45pm at the bus terminal in Port Klang. Five hours later, Hanafi led the police to a bus terminal in North Klang.
Once there, he showed the drain where he had thrown away the victim's handbag, which contained her personal documents. The bag was still there.
The police then identified the body as that of Noor Suzaily.
Hanafi was charged at the Shah Alam High Court with rape and murder of Noor Suzaily on Nov 1, 2000. He pleaded not guilty.
The trial, which started at the High Court in early 2001, saw 55 witnesses taking the stand in 62 days.
The Shah Alam High Court found him guilty of murder, and sentenced him to death by hanging on April 26, 2006. He was also sentenced to 20 years' jail and ordered to receive 12 strokes of the rotan for rape.
Hanafi exhausted his final appeal at the Federal Court on Dec 12, 2006. He was hanged on Dec 18, 2008 at the Kajang Prison.