Headless body three days old: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): A forensic expert said a headless body found Saturday in Klender, East Jakarta was three days old.

Mun'im Idris of the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital said yesterday he believed the boy, found on Jl. I Gusti Ngurah Rai, was killed Thursday night.

The boy is thought to have been a scavenger aged between 12 to 14 years.

Mun'im said the body was similar to that of another dead boy found in July in Pondok Kopi, also East Jakarta. The two bodies' stomachs had been slashed and had damaged anuses that contained semen. The stomach cuts were the same shape.

The previous boy, identified as Kasikin, was the last victim found of eight boys killed in Jakarta. Two other dead boys were found in Central Java.

Police believe the murders are related.

But Mun'im said the body found Saturday "was sodomized more frequently in view of the anal damage" compared to the others.

East Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Nanan Sukarna said police have several suspects.

He said police spoke with the suspected murderer of the 10 boys, Siswanto, alias Robot Gedeg, at the Salemba penitentiary on Sunday. Siswanto told them the names of several of his friends who were also pedophiles.

Siswanto was arrested on July 27 at a railway station in Tegal, Central Java.

Yesterday police again combed the site where the body was found near the Perumnas Klender housing complex.

Officer Nanan believed the killer ran toward a slum area across a railway line in front of the housing complex.

If the killer ran in another direction he would have been recognized by the complex's guards, Nanan said.

Police have gathered dozens of scavengers to identify the victim. "But they did not recognized the headless body."

"We hope the case can be solved early next month," Nanan said.

Several people who have missing family members looked at the body in the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital morgue but could not identify the boy. (jun)