In a country where serious crimes are increasingly commonplace, it is something of a mystery why the rape and murder of a 26-year-old computer analyst has generated so much passion and anger.
But newspaper editors, accused of sensationalism, say the case of Canny Ong has all the right ingredients to make the headlines - she was young, beautiful, rich and, on the very night she was murdered, heading to an exciting new life in the United States with her American husband.
On June 13, Canny Ong had her last dinner of steak and fried crabs with her family and friends at an upscale shopping centre when she went down to the car park to collect the mother's car. She never returned. Raped and strangled to death, her badly burnt body was found three days later.
Many Malaysians who have avidly followed the story through all its twists and turns are mesmerised by one fact: that Canny, who was taken on an 18-hour terror ride by her abductor, did not escape despite getting several chances to flee.
They had hoped her murder trial that opened last week - with aircraft cleaner Ahmad Najib, 27, in the dock and facing the death penalty if convicted - would provide the answer to why she did not flee or fight when she held a black belt in karate.
The testimony in the trial, which has been adjourned until January 12, has thus far failed to provide any clear insights, revealing only the horrifying details of Canny's last hours as her abductor drove her around the Malaysian capital.
During the terror ride, witnesses testified, Najib was interrupted twice - once by two plainclothes policemen doing their rounds.