Bogor police want RSCM to examine dismembered body
Bogor police want RSCM to examine dismembered body
BOGOR (JP): Bogor Police chief Col. Hari Setyabudhi announced
plans on Wednesday to send a dismembered male body to Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) in Jakarta due to the slow
progress made by forensic experts at the local PMI (Red Cross)
hospital.
Hari said RSCM forensic experts would be able to speedily
determine at least the estimated age of the victim, whose body
parts -- a head, torso, two arms and two legs -- were found
buried in a resident's yard in Kampung Bojong in Gunung Putri
here on Sunday.
The officer expressed concern the slow progress made by
forensic experts at PMI hospital would impede police
investigation of the case.
"We therefore plan to request the help of experts from FKUI
(the medical school at the University of Indonesia) at RSCM to
identify the age of the victim before he was dismembered by
examining the available bones," Hari said.
The discovery of the body parts, some of which were already
decomposed, was reported when the house owner, Haji Kaman, asked
neighbors to help him pull out a decaying palm tree in front of
his house.
When the residents pulled out the tree, which was planted a
few months ago, they unintentionally dragged up the edge of a
plastic carpet. Further digging revealed the body parts.
Besides the body parts, the residents also found a white
elementary school uniform bearing the name of Bambang Arie P. of
SDN 6 Tangerang, a saw, believed to have been used to dismember
the body, and a newspaper dated Dec. 18, 1998.
Tangerang is about one hour drive from Bogor.
The parents of Arie, 12, reported their son as the victim of a
kidnapping by an unidentified man to Tangerang Police on Nov. 4,
1998.
But Ari's father, Adji Sugianto, a resident of the Agraria
housing complex in Tangerang, after viewing the body parts at PMI
hospital on Tuesday announced that the victim was not his son.
Sugianto said on Wednesday: "I strongly believe that the body
was not that of Arie's. My son has body marks beneath his navel.
Besides, Arie was still 12 years old."
The PMI hospital earlier announced that the male body was aged
between 30 years and 40 years, weighed 52 kilograms and was 155
centimeters tall.
Sugianto said the finding of Arie's school uniform near the
dismembered body and the similarity of the physical identities of
the suspected killer might be an act of his son's kidnapper to
create an alibi.
"My son has a blood type O, while forensic experts at PMI
hospital are yet to issue results of the blood type."
Sugianto acknowledged that Kaman's disclosure of identifying
physical characteristics of the suspected killer of the mutilated
body -- were similar to reports made by witnesses concerning one
of the alleged abductors of his son.
Kaman earlier recalled that the former tenant of his house,
believed to be responsible for the killing, was a tall, large man
whose curly hair was always covered by a hat.
"Last December, the house was rented by a man at Rp 60,000
(US$8) per month," he said, insisting that he did not know him.
Sugianto said the description corresponded to that of a man
who once asked him to transfer Rp 50 million to a bank account.
He said his son was kidnapped at about 10 a.m. during a break
at his school.
Sumarni, one of Arie's teachers, recalled that two classmates
of the child observed Arie departing with strangers.
"But there was no compulsion. He was not, for example, being
dragged away," the teacher said.
Separately, a source at PMI hospital said on Wednesday the
dismembered body's age was estimated at 12 years.
The source quoted forensic expert Swasti Hertian as saying
that dental analysis revealed that the corpse had 28 teeth.
"An adult has 32 teeth. The conclusion is also backed up with
the fact that the rib of the victim is still in the growing
phase," the source added.
He, however, said that a casual glance at the body parts of
the body could leave an impression the victim was an adult.
(24/41/bsr)