By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck’s most scrutinized, under-the-microscope man is now spending the next 18 months to 15 years in prison.
But not for the thing authorities suspect him of doing.
Recently, Jamrul Hussain was sentenced by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Allen to prison for the statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl.
That’s not the crime that police investigators really want to nail Hussain on. Hussain is a “person of interest” in the case of missing 3-year-old Tangena Hussain, who was last seen on Oct. 8, 2008.
Jamrul and Tangena share the same last name but they are not related. Their connection, however, is one of mystery. Jamrul reported that he had taken Tangena with him for a drive to pick up the girl’s mother from work at Northland shopping center. At the time, Jamrul was dating the girl’s mother.
On the way there, Jamrul said he stopped at a gas station to buy some gum and juice. He parked behind the station and left Tangena in the locked car. When he came back, the girl, then age 2, was gone.
He said he had nothing to do with her vanishing.
A 2 year-old.
Left alone in a locked car.
Was she abducted? There was no sign of a struggle, and no sign someone damaged the car to get it open.
Could the 2-year-old have unlocked the car and wondered off, or did she unlock the car at the behest of a stranger or someone she knew and go with that person?
What Jamrul did next doesn’t wash with investigators. Instead of immediately calling for the police, he continued his drive to pick up the girl’s mother. Once her mother was told the girl was missing, she called police.
In the days and weeks after, investigators searched various local houses and properties for evidence, and, with the help of cadaver dogs, her body. A door-to-door search in the neighborhood near the gas station was held.
Police won’t say what evidence – if any – was found. But one Hamtramck investigator said it’s believed Jamrul had a hand in the disappearance of the girl. During one interview session, he seemed on the verge of breaking down and admitting something, or was about to say something, one investigator told The Review. That is, until his attorney put an end to the questioning.
So close.
Jamrul participated in two lie detector sessions but he was so shaken and emotional the questioning was stopped because of his condition.
So, how does this lead to the conviction of raping a 15-year-old?
Once the missing girl case hit the local media, a teenage girl told Hamtramck police that when she and Jamrul were dating – before Jamrul started a relationship with Tangena’s mother – he had sex with her. Initially, she told police that Jamrul had kidnapped her and held her in the basement of his friend where he repeatedly had sex with her.
A case of a jealous girl who felt she was dumped for another?
There could be some truth to that because the kidnapping charge was later dropped when the credibility of the girl came under suspicion. But the charge of having sex with a minor stuck.
And so, Jamrul will now spend at least a couple of years in prison. During this time, police hope he does some deep soul searching.
Curiously, Tangena’s mother has since returned to her native Bangladesh. The FBI is still offering a $20,000 reward to anyone with information that will lead to the discovery of the girl, or her body.
Was she kidnapped?
Was she killed?
Or is she still alive?
Did she get handed off to another family?
Those are questions many have and many will continue to turn those nagging questions over and over in their mind.
Mom2J
September 14, 2012 at 7:21 pm
I am also Bengali, and my daughter was 1 1/2 when this story came out. When I saw Tangena’s picture, my heart broke, as she looked so much like my daughter. I think about Tangena all the time as my child grows up. If Jamrul does not talk, I hope that somebody from the Detroit area Bangladeshi community gets him to talk. If he is hiding behind the “oh I don’t understand English” BS, then they need to get a Bengali interpreter there ASAP and talk to him as a “brother”.
Ad Chy
September 26, 2012 at 7:59 am
I was so shocked when I heard this story 3 years ago. I am from Bangladesh, I think many Bangladeshi young kinds in Hamtramck growing up like Jamrul . They are living immoral life and their family are to be blamed for this. It is immoral to have sex before marriage in our culture. Jamrul’s family supported him , if they stopped him then they could have saved him and the little girl both. Bangladeshi community in Michigan is experiencing a moral decay. There are many ugly and sad stories like this happening every year. I saw it and realized I dont want to raise my kids there.