The police have taken statements from five individuals concerning the allegation that William Yau Zhen Zhong, 6, who was found dead last Thursday, had been abused by his parents before he disappeared.
    
Melaka Deputy CID Chief (Operations and Intelligence), Supt P R Gunarajan, said that the five individuals were the great-grandmother, grand-uncle and uncle of William, as well as another man and his daughter who are neighbours of William's great-grandmother.
    
He said that their statements were recorded yesterday afternoon by four officers, two each from the Melaka Contingent Police Headquarters (IPK) and the Subang Jaya District Police Headquarters, at William's great-grandmother's house in Batang Melaka, Jasin near Melaka.
    
"The recording of the statements of the five individuals was carried out for four hours from 3.30pm until 7.30pm," he said when met by reporters in Melaka today.
    
Meanwhile, Gunarajan said that the police would also call up two other individuals, including William's grandmother, Chee Chou Moi, 68, to assist in the investigation.   
    
"At the moment, we have not called up William's grandmother for her statement because she is still grieving over the incident," he said.
    
William, the second son of Goh Ying Ying, 28, and Yau Kok Kang, 32, was reported missing on Jan 16 at Jalan Putra Mahkota, Putra Heights in Subang Jaya after he was believed to have stepped out of a vehicle to look for his parents who had stopped near an electrical shop.
    
On Jan 24, the fully-clothed body of a boy was found at the Kampung Sungai Sireh Jetty, Port Klang before the initial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) report by the Chemistry Department which confirmed that the body found was that of William's.
    
- Bernama