Elderly woman and maid killed, motive unclear

Elderly woman and maid killed, motive unclear

JAKARTA (JP): An elderly woman and her housemaid were found
dead in a residential house on Jl. Kebahagiaan in Krukut
subdistrict in Taman Sari, West Jakarta, on Wednesday afternoon.

Relatives and local police detectives said there no signs of a
robbery and no valuables were missing.

Mariawati Tanzil, 76, suffered head wounds while servant Iyem,
48, suffered injuries to her head and back.

An iron bar, believed to be the murder weapon, was found
beside Mariawati's body.

Her relatives said they thought the killer must have been
familiar with Mariawati, who never allowed the housemaid to let
strangers enter the house without her permission.

Police took the iron bar and a glass found on the house's
terrace as evidence.

The two dead bodies were found at about 2 p.m. by Mariawati's
grandson, Alex, who had returned from his mid-term examinations
at Tarumanegara University.

According to Kristianto Wijaya, Mariawati's son, Alex found
his grandmother's body on the floor in the living room.

He then searched the rest of the house and found the
housemaid's body in the kitchen.

Furniture and other items in the house were disturbed but
Mariawati's relatives have not reported anything stolen.

Kristianto told reporters he thought the murderer was most
likely a family acquaintance as his strict mother was very
selective in allowing guests into the house.

"Not just any guest could enter our house, as they would be
first met by our housemaid at the front fence before my mother
would tell her to let the guests in or not," he said.

There was no damage to the door of the house or the front
gate, which has a two-meter iron fence topped with barbed wire.

Besides Iyem, Mariawati lived in the house with her widowed
daughter, Ester, and the latter's two sons Alex and Andrew.

Ester and Andrew were not at home when the incident took
place.

The two were questioned at nearby Taman Sari police station on
Wednesday afternoon.

As of late Wednesday, police had not released any details of
the case, saying they were still investigating.

Driver killed

Also on Wednesday, West Jakarta Police were still looking for
three men who killed a Kopaja minibus driver and wounded two
conductors on Tuesday night at the ABC suspension bridge on Jl.
Daan Mogot.

According to the two conductors, three men stopped the minibus
on the Kalideres-Tanah Abang route, boarded the bus, and tried to
rob the mostly female passengers.

The three men first attacked the conductors, who both fainted
after sustaining head injuries.

Rizal, one of injured conductors, said the passengers were
screaming.

Attempting to reach a crowded area, driver Effendy increased
the speed of the minibus. This apparently angered the robbers.
One of them rushed to the front of the bus and hit Effendy on the
back and head several times with an iron bar.

The driver's brother-in-law, Syahrial, quoted witnesses as
saying Effendy managed to drive the vehicle about 500 meters
after he was attacked.

When the bus stopped, the three men jumped out and left the
panicking passengers.

"The three men might have been afraid the screaming women
would alert passers-by," Syahrial said on Wednesday at Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital, where the postmortem of the dead
driver was being conducted. (emf/01)