Parts of human body found by scavengers at river bank

JAKARTA (JP): Parts of a dismembered body were discovered by scavengers in an old cardboard box and a plastic bag on a river bank in Bekasi on Saturday, the head and torso still missing.

The finding consisted of six body parts, namely two thighs, two feet and two arms complete with fingers. This is the third case of a mutilation-murder this year.

Residents living near Kali Jeruk river in Cibitung were astonished when they heard the loud shouts from three small scavengers on the river bank close to the busy road of Jl. Yos Sudarso at around 11:30 a.m.

"I was near the river guarding my food stall when the scavenger girls shouted, 'Human arm...human arm'," Jumiati, a resident of Kampung Kaum, said.

She said that the three scavengers came to borrow a knife from her and told her that they had found a heavy box, which they suspected was full of used clothes.

"The knife was used to cut the rope tied around the cardboard. Upon seeing the contents, however, they ran off in panic, asking for help," she said.

Other residents immediately thronged to the scene. Together with police officers who were informed later of the finding, they took away the parts believed to belong to a young woman.

"When I saw the police pick up the cardboard box, I could only think about the woman's parents and relatives. They would have been very sad seeing their loved one cut up like that," Jumiati told reporters.

The body parts were then rushed to the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta for identification and further examination.

A forensic assistant of the hospital, Bambang H.P., said the body parts were believed to be those of a woman of under 30 years old and of 150 centimeters in height. The belief was based on the shape of the arms and thighs.

The body, which had clean skin, was mutilated in the joints, he said.

"I believed that it was done by a professional knowledgeable in dissection," he said.

"A team of forensic doctors will thoroughly examine the body on Monday," forensic expert Herkutanto said, refusing to give details.

Separately, the chief of the Bekasi police precinct Lt. Col. Adjie Rustam Ramdja said detectives had been deployed to comb the area and seek out any possible clues relating to this sadistic murder.

"They have not yet returned to the police station. Our investigation is still under way and we'll do our best to solve this case," he said on Sunday.

As of Sunday afternoon at least two men had been to the morgue in efforts to identify the victim.

Herkutanto said two men who claimed their relatives were missing visited the morgue on Sunday, but they could not identify the body.

He said one of them was identified as Purwanto from Jl. Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, whose wife, identified as Nunung Nurhayati, went missing last week.

Purwanto, whose wife had peculiar marks on one of her legs, was finally sure that it was not her after viewing the body, he said.

The fresh finding of these body parts raises the number of mutilation cases to three this year.

The victims in the two earlier cases were also women in their 20s and the murder motives were personal.

One of the two cases has been solved, namely that of the mutilated body found on June 27 in a fish pond in Pondok Ranggon in East Jakarta. The victim had been cut up into five parts.

After determining the identity of the severed body, police arrested an Air Force First Sgt. Uki Wardana for killing and dismembering his girl friend, Rahayu Chaeranti.

Earlier in Tangerang, residents found 12 parts of a female body dumped near a railway but the case remains unsolved. (emf/jun)