Madiun Murder Suspect Allegedly Devised Elaborate Plot to Conceal Killing of Partner and Child

A man in Madiun, Dwi Bagus Martono, also known as Bagus or DBM, 40, who is suspected of brutally murdering his unregistered wife, Dini Hardiyanti, 30, and her child, AGF, four, allegedly devised an elaborate plot to conceal his crime.

Bagus, a graduate of a well-known polytechnic in Bandung, is said to have pretended that a family member had gone missing. This led to a missing-person report being filed with police on 5 October 2026.

The plot began to unravel when Dini’s family in Bogor became suspicious. She usually kept in frequent contact with them, but communication abruptly and mysteriously stopped on 20 September 2026.

“Victim always communicated with her family in Bogor. The communication was intensive: she would regularly tell them where she was and how she was doing. But the last communication was on 20 September,” said East Java Police Criminal Investigation Directorate chief Roy H M Sihombing at East Java Police headquarters in Surabaya on Tuesday (27 October).

The worried family tried to find out where Dini was by contacting the suspect. However, Bagus deliberately ignored their attempts to reach him, prompting further suspicion.

“The family also contacted the perpetrator to ask where she was. But he was unresponsive, which increased the family’s suspicions,” Roy said.

Dini’s family then travelled from Bogor to Madiun and reported her missing to Madiun City Police on 5 October 2026.

“That was when her family in Bogor felt that something was unusual: there was no communication. So they took the initiative to file a missing-person report with Madiun City Police,” Roy said.

To bolster his alibi, the suspect calmly went to the Madiun City Police station when the family filed the report. His presence was meant to look like a husband concerned about finding his wife and child.

“When the report was made to Madiun City Police, the perpetrator also attended. It was part of the responsibility he was trying to stage,” Roy said.

In front of local police, the suspect told a fabricated story to mislead the investigation. He claimed that after an argument, his wife had left him, getting out at an unknown place and taking the child with her.

“Following an argument at the hotel, a scenario was created in which the victim left the suspect. She got out somewhere and left with her child,” Roy said.

The incident began when DBM invited Dini and AGF on a trip to Lake Sarangan in Magetan to celebrate the child’s birthday on 19 September 2026. The plan was suddenly cancelled because the suspect chose instead to collect his legally married wife from a railway station.

That night, DBM left Dini and AGF at a hotel on Jalan Dr Soetomo in Madiun, while he went to collect his wife and returned home.

DBM returned to the hotel the next morning, on 20 September. The pair argued over their relationship, with Dini reportedly jealous of the suspect’s legally married wife. They pushed each other before he allegedly strangled Dini until she was unconscious.

“She was killed by her unregistered husband after an argument at a hotel in Madiun City. She was strangled,” Roy said.

After finding Dini dead, the suspect put her body in a sleeping bag he had kept in his vehicle. He then left the hotel in his Mitsubishi Pajero, carrying Dini’s body and AGF, who was still alive.

The suspect took Dini’s body and the child to his parents’ home in Gang Tentrem, Jalan Doho, Winongo subdistrict, Manguharjo district, Madiun. There, he transferred the child to another car, a Suzuki Karimun, and allegedly strangled the four-year-old in the passenger seat.

“The body was taken out of the hotel, and her own child was treated the same way, but in a different place, inside a car,” Roy said.

DBM then took both bodies to his home on Jalan Kunir, Ngegong subdistrict, Manguharjo district, Madiun. He concealed them in the garden behind the house, wrapped in a sleeping bag and covered with a tarpaulin. The suspect ordered a saw and a meat grinder.

On 22 and 23 September 2026, the suspect allegedly mutilated the bodies of his unregistered wife and child in an attempt to cover up the crime.

The murders were uncovered through an examination of CCTV footage from a hotel in Madiun, where the victims were last detected on 19–20 September.

Investigators also searched around the suspect’s parents’ home in Winongo, Manguharjo, where they found five suspicious bone fragments.

The five bone samples were sent to a forensic laboratory, which confirmed they were human remains.

Based on the forensic findings and evidence gathered at the scene, police concluded that the victims’ disappearance was the result of murder. Officers arrested DBM while he was on the run at a house in Mejoyolosari village, Gudo district, Jombang regency, on Sunday (25 October).