BUTTERWORTH, MALAYSIA: A 44-year-old insurance agent sent off a friend at the Penang International Airport in Bayan Lepas on Friday only to return home to find his wife and two kids gone.

Also missing from the house, claimed Tan Kah Beng, were money, jewellery and documents, including those belonging to his son Jing Li, three, and daughter, Jing Ying, five.

He believes his Indonesian wife, Bening Supriyati, 38, and the children left their house in Seberang Jaya here at about 6am on Friday.

"I went to the airport to send off my friend and, upon returning home, found all of them missing," he told reporters here yesterday.

He has made a police report and checked with the Immigration Department, but believes they have not left the country.

Tan said a driver of a bus that plied through Lorong Sembilang, where he stays, claimed a woman and two children had boarded the bus on Friday and alighted near the Sunway Hotel in Seberang Jaya.

"According to the driver, she was carrying a black travelling bag.

"The kids were still in their pyjamas while she was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and a tudung," said Tan.

"My wife went missing on four previous occasions, including when she was expecting our first child.

"However, we always patched up each time she returned home," he said, adding they had small quarrels since getting married in June 2003.

He appealed to the public to call him at 016-410-8014 to help trace his wife and children.