Detectives sent to East Java for murder probe

JAKARTA (JP): Tanjung Duren Police in West Jakarta has sent a team of detectives to East Java cities in search of a suspect, who allegedly stabbed to death a maidservant in an empty house and stole motorcycle on Wednesday morning.

Tanjung Duren police chief of detectives First. Lt. Mulyanto identified the dead woman as Mumun, 23, who had worked for more than five years for the family of Loh Mulyadinata, 44, whose motorcycle was stolen.

Mulyanto said the unidentified suspect was a construction worker who had finished renovating one of two homes owned by Mulyadinata in the Pakowan housing complex, Jelambar Baru.

"Before the suspect could run off with the motorcycle, Mulyadinata's son, David, 12, saw the suspect trying to start it. David is the only witness who knows what the suspect looks like," Mulyanto said.

"It is still not clear what Mumun was doing in that empty residence. She was found dead near the kitchen," he said.

Separately, David told reporters on Wednesday that when he saw the suspect trying to start the motorcycle, he asked him where he was going.

"He told me he was going to get some bricks and paint and other construction material and that my father had allowed him to use the motorcycle. Since he had the key with him, I assumed he had gotten it from my father," David told reporters at his home.

"So, I helped him start the motorcycle, and he left. I can't remember his name, but I know that he's a member of Pak Ali's construction crew."

Mulyadinata added that all renovations on his home were finished on Saturday, and that he was sure that the crime was not committed because of a "payment problem", since the workers were paid on a daily basis.

Police are still investigating the case.

"But why did the suspect have to stab her and strike her so badly? She was beaten with a blunt object on her head, her eyebrows, her forehead and her chin," a police source said. (ylt)