Motor-wash shop employee killed by being slashed by four friends in Bali; two suspects are still minors
Victim, a staff member at a motor-wash shop, was beaten to death. His body was placed inside a sack and buried in an empty lot on Jalan Antasura, Banjar Cabe, Darmasaba village.
‘The perpetrators admitted they planned to kill the victim and to take his valuable items to sell. The plan was to share the proceeds,’ said Badung Police Chief Senior Commissioner Joseph Edward Purba when announcing the case at Badung Police Headquarters, as reported by detikBali on Wednesday 20 May 2026.
The case came to light when residents found the decomposed corpse on Tuesday 12 May 2026 around 4:00 pm WITA. However the murder occurred earlier, on Thursday 7 May 2026 around 2:40 am WITA.
‘The execution location was at the motor-wash shop where the victim worked,’ said AKBP Joseph Edward Purba.
The Badung Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit continued the investigation and eventually arrested four suspects in Jember Regency, East Java, two days earlier. The four suspects are DF (20) from East Lombok; MKH (24) from Jember; and two minors AFP (17) and IPR (16) from Jember.
‘We secured the four suspects in East Java, in two different locations. In one location there were three suspects, and in the other there was one,’ explained Badung Police’s Chief of Criminal Investigation AKP Azarul Ahmad.
The four suspects were arrested sequentially, almost simultaneously. Police had to shoot the main suspect DF in the leg as he allegedly resisted arrest.
According to investigators, the motive for the murder is suspected revenge by the main suspect DF, who admitted he was often teased by the victim while working at the motor-wash shop. In addition to resentment, the suspects also sought to take the victim’s valuables, which came from Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara.
‘During their two-person pairing at Mae Wash, the main suspect was frequently subjected to insults, including being told he resembled a certain race. Based on this long-standing grievance, one of the motives for the murder emerged,’ said AKP Azarul Ahmad.
Police said of the four suspects, only DF knew the victim because they both worked at the motor wash. The other three suspects were friends from DF’s boarding house in Kuta, Badung.
Victim beaten and slashed to death
The victim died after being bludgeoned by four attackers. Police revealed the victim sustained a hard blow to the head with an empty glass bottle and a damaged metal chair. He was beaten and kicked until he collapsed.
The injuries were aggravated by a stab wound to the back with a foam-cutting knife. The fatal wound occurred when the assailants slashed the victim’s neck repeatedly until he died at the scene.
After killing the victim, the perpetrators sold his motorbike for Rp1.8 million. Meanwhile, the victim’s mobile phone was taken by DF and the sale proceeds were not shared with the two minors.