Zara Qairina inquest: Handwriting on loose sheets matches mysterious ‘Wina’

Zara Qairina Mahathir, 13, died on July 17, 2025 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she had been admitted a day earlier after being found unconscious near a drain at her school hostel in Papar at 4am. — Daily Express pic

First Published: Thursday, 27 Aug 2026 6:42 PM MYT

KOTA KINABALU, Aug 27 — Several loose sheets examined in connection with the death of Zara Qairina Mahathir showed similarities with handwriting attributed to a declared writer identified as “Wina”, the Coroner’s Court heard today.

Forensic document examiner Tay Eue Kam said the handwriting on loose sheets marked Y9B, Y10A and Y10B showed similarities with handwriting attributed to the declared writer Wina in an indented impression recovered from page 50i of the olive-green “Love And Peace” journal marked WK9.

She said this during the questioning by lawyer Joan Goh, counsel for one of the teenagers charged in the bullying case involving Zara Qairina.

Tay said the indented impression on WK9 page 50i was recovered using the Electrostatic Detection Apparatus (ESDA), and agreed that it could have originated from a missing or torn page or another page that had previously been placed above page 50.

However, Tay told the court that she did not have an actual specimen handwriting of ‘Wina’ for comparison.

“I do not have the specimen (actual) writing of Wina per se, but what I had was the writing declared as Wina on page 50i of WK9,” she told Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan during the inquest into Zara Qairina’s death here today.

When Goh asked whether they knew if Wina existed, Tay replied: “I don’t know.”

Tay further testified that Y9B, Y10A and Y10B were grouped together following comparisons involving entries from Y1A to Y15B.

Her report stated that differences were observed between the handwritten entries in the group and Zara Qairina’s specimen handwriting, providing strong support that Zara Qairina did not write those entries.

Asked specifically whether Y9B, Y10A and Y10B were written by Wina, Tay maintained that the handwriting characteristics were similar to those attributed to the declared writer Wina.

On the contents of Y9B, which touched on matters concerning Zara Qairina’s mother, Tay said she was not in a position to explain the content.

During further questioning, Tay confirmed that her report did not contain a specific comparison chart for Y9B, Y10A and Y10B, although she maintained that similarities and differences had been analysed.

Zara Qairina died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on July 17, 2025, a day after she was found unconscious in a drain near her school hostel at about 4 am.

The inquest is scheduled to continue from Sept 7 to 11, with Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist Dr Chua Sze Hung and Chemistry Department Document Examination Division officer Nurul Atiqah Mohd Noh expected to be recalled.

This will be followed by testimony from Zara Qairina’s father and stepsister, while the locus in quo inspection has been fixed for Oct 5. — Bernama