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alaysian Police have launched a murder investigation into the death of an Indonesian migrant worker in Penang.

Authorities, as reported by The Star, have detained a 36-year-old woman and her 39-year-old brother for allegedly abusing their Indonesian maid, a 21-year-old woman named Adeline from Medan who died in a hospital on Sunday.

Police are seeking a third person believed to be involved in the case.

According to the Foreign Ministry’s director for protection of citizens overseas, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, Adeline had worked in Malaysia illegally for two years.

“She had previously worked in Malaysia legally,” he told reporters in Jakarta on Monday. “She came back to Indonesia before returning to work in Malaysia through non-official means.”

Iqbal said the Indonesian Consulate General in Penang had met the investigation officers in Malaysia. “They told us they are going to question one more person and conduct a post mortem examination [on Tuesday],” he said.

He added that the Consulate General had not receive reports about Adeline’s abuse until informed by Malaysian police on Saturday evening. He said they said Adelina’s employers had brought her to the police and he police had brought her to the hospital.

“When the [officers] from the Indonesian Consulate General arrived [at the hospital], she was already dead,” Iqbal said.

Iqbal said Adelina’s abuser was allegedly a relative of her employer. “But her employers are also being held and questioned because the police didn’t get the chance to interview her when she was in the hospital,” he said.

Iqbal said his directorate was still trying to track down Adelina’s family.

Central Seberang Prai Police assistant commander Nik Ros Azhan Nik Abdul Hamid told The Star there was swelling on Adelina’s head and face as well as injuries on her arms and legs.

“We sent her to Bukit Mertajam Hospital where she died,” he said. “Attempts to record her statement when she was still alive were not successful as she was still in fear.”

The two employers, he added, have been remanded until Wednesday to facilitate investigations under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

The Star reported on Monday that the day before Adelina died she was seen sitting on the porch of the house, too terrified to respond to rescuers.

She only glanced at them and shook her head. A black Rottweiler, tied to a leash beside her, barked at her rescuers.

Those rescuers — assistants to a local politician — went on Saturday to the double-story semidetached house in Taman Kota Permai after being alerted by a journalist.

One of them, Por Cheng Han, 29, said neighbors told them that Adelina was abused for more than a month and made to sleep outside with the Rottweiler.

“We arrived and saw her on the porch. She did not respond to us and just shook her head,” he said. “We spoke to the neighbors, who told us they often heard the employer scolding her loudly from inside the house.”

He said he saw pus on what appeared to be burn marks on the maid’s legs.

“There was a woman in her 60s at the house when we arrived,” said Por, saying that she refused to send the maid to the hospital and told them to mind their own business.

Instead, Por said he was given the phone number of the woman’s daughter — the maid’s employer — who denied abusing the woman and told them to wait for her to return.