By Mark Stodghill
News Tribune staff writer
Saturday, June 30, 2001

With their daughter missing in Malaysia for the past 19 months, Leslie and Janice Bushell of Duluth expected the worst, but they had no idea how horrible the news they received this week would be.

The Bushells were told Sunday during a phone call from their son-in-law in Ipoh, Malaysia, that their daughter, Carolyn Noraini Ahmad, had been murdered. What are believed to be their daughter's remains were unearthed from a shallow grave at a Malaysian oil palm plantation on June 22.

The Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, reported that one of four suspects in the woman's slaying led police to the grave and said that the victim was sacrificed in the hope of obtaining winning four-digit lottery numbers from the spirits.

The details of the ritual are unclear, but some Malaysians have held ceremonies where they offer prayers and slaughter goats in hopes of receiving inspiration on winning lottery numbers, the wire service reported.

Janice Bushell said that a spokeswoman with the American Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said that their daughter's head and feet had been severed.

Roslan Ahmad, the victim's husband, told his in-laws that he identified his wife's remains and some pieces of her clothing.

Janice Bushell said that her son-in-law has requested that her daughter's dental records be sent to Malaysia and that DNA tests will be conducted to confirm her identity.

"I'm hoping they find out that it really wasn't her, but I know that's not going to be coming true,'' Janice Bushell said Friday afternoon from her home in the Harborview housing complex.

Carolyn Janice Bushell was born on May 10, 1964, making Janice Bushell a mother on Mother's Day.

"She was outgoing and had the usual problems teen-agers had, but she enjoyed life; she was here too short a time,'' her mother said.

Carolyn was the oldest of three children of the couple that has been married for 37 years. Leslie Bushell is a retired taxi driver, who has only one lung and is connected to an oxygen bottle.

"She was a good daughter, but too trusting,'' he said without wanting to elaborate.

Carolyn attended Duluth Central High School and received her General Educational Development certificate before attending the University of Minnesota Duluth, where she met Ahmad, who was also a student there. They married in 1986 and moved to Ahmad's homeland of Malaysia in 1987. He is the general manager of a private medical center there.

The couple has a son, now 16, and two daughters, 12 and 8. But their marriage had become troubled, Janice Bushell said. She said her daughter had hired a divorce lawyer and was in the process of leaving her husband when she turned up missing in November 1999. Her parents never heard from her again.

"I wanted her cremated and her ashes sent to me,'' Janice Bushell said. "But she didn't have a living will and he (Ahmad) said he wants her buried near the kids.''

Mark Stodghill reports on legal affairs. He can be reached weekdays at (218) 723-5333 or by e-mail at mstodghill@duluthnews.com.