A "mystery girl" whose body was found stuffed in a sports bag after being brutally raped and murdered was reportedly identified Thursday as a child who went missing a month ago.

Malaysians were horrified by the fate of the girl whose body was discovered outside a shop on Tuesday, and were particularly disturbed that no one had come forward to claim her.

But the official Bernama news agency said that DNA tests had identified her as eight-year-old Nurin Jazlin Jazimin who disappeared after going to a night market near her home last month.

Her parents had viewed the battered and emaciated body but said it was not their daughter.

Nurin's mother, Norazian Bistaman, told Bernama that she was distraught at the thought her daughter had been in the hands of the killer for a month.

"I hope God will punish the murderer for the brutal killing of my innocent daughter to equal what has been done to her," she said.

Police have said that the girl was assaulted with foreign objects that ruptured her intestines, causing an infection that killed her.

They have linked the case to a serial molester who attacked two surviving girls, aged five and six, in the same way.

Nurin's father, 33-year-old taxi driver Jazimin Abdul Jalil, refused to accept the DNA results.

"If police ask me to take the body, I will accept, I will perform the funeral rites and bury it. But I want the police to pursue the search for Nurin because I know Nurin is still safe out there," he said according to Bernama.