Sources in Sabah have confirmed that 28-year-old Nur Afiah Daeng Danim, the domestic worker who was found dead by her employers on the floor of their apartment in Kota Kinabalu last December, was a Malaysian.

Local activists have concurred that Nur Afiah was quite possibly the first Malaysian domestic worker to have died in employment of suspicious circumstances in the past five decades at least.

Although it’s not clear if...