Elderly Abuser at West Jakarta Laundry Turns Out to be Husband of Victim’s Former Employee

JA (30), the assailant of the elderly owner Christine Wijaya (76) at Jalan Kebon Jeruk IX, Kelurahan Maphar, Kecamatan Tamansari, West Jakarta, has turned out to be the husband of a former employee of the business. “When we were at the police station, he told me, ‘Ci, I am Novi’s husband,’ he told me,” Christine said when Kompas.com visited the scene on Wednesday (20 May 2026). Christine explained that Novi, named by the perpetrator, was a former employee who worked at her business in 2025. “He used to work with me. His work was not good. Clothes were swapped. And the worst thing is, clothes were washed until they had holes. That’s what upset me the most,” Christine said. Christine admitted she had previously had personal issues with the perpetrator’s wife. However, she says she always treated the perpetrator’s wife well, even often eating together when she had additional money. “I used to receive elderly care money, Rp 300,000; I said I got a little fortune, let’s have a meal. We’ll eat pecel lele. I treat her like my own child. If I am like that, I wouldn’t want to make enemies,” she added. “She told residents at the post that she wanted to do laundry repeatedly; I refused. It can’t be that someone wants to do laundry and we refuse; fortune comes and we refuse, we end up seeking customers,” Christine said. Then, she gave another reason that she was yelled at by the victim when she went to pick up the laundry that had been finished. The victim challenged the perpetrator to prove his name on the customer list if he indeed intended to take the clothes. Christine also suspected that the attack on her was driven by revenge, not just anger over the laundry. Moreover, JA is strongly suspected of having prepared a wooden beam to attack her.