Father of missing Malaysian teen speaks out: ‘We don’t know what to do next’

It has been more than two weeks since 17-year-old Erma Fatima Shamsul Bahari went missing in the middle of a family breakfast at a restaurant in Malaysia, with a flurry of action on a smartphone before she vanished being the only clue to her disappearance.

“We just don’t know where she is,” her father, Shamsul Bahari Abu Bakar, told This Week in Asia.

As days have turned into weeks, Erma Fatima’s parents have become increasingly desperate, not knowing what more they can do as they wait for any shred of information about her whereabouts.

She went missing on October 25, after using the restroom at a restaurant where her family was having breakfast in a rural town in northern Terengganu state.

The family has gone on a frantic search of places they thought she may have gone to, visiting some spots multiple times, in the hope they will find her safe and sound.

Erma Fatima became the latest missing person case to make headlines in Malaysia following a spate of runaways and kidnappings involving girls and young women in recent months.