Piecing Together the Puzzle of Sutrimo's Death

Around a week before he was found dead, Sutrimo returned to his hometown in Wlahar Village, Banyumas, Central Java. He told one relative that his employer, former Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) Febrie Adriansyah, was in trouble.

“(Sutrimo) said he was afraid in Jakarta, that his friends were all being arrested,” said Ridwan—not his real name—a relative of Sutrimo in Banyumas, speaking to detikX.

Sutrimo served as the head of household (karumga) at Febrie’s residence. Febrie himself is currently detained at the KPK detention centre as a suspect in a money laundering (TPPU) case.

Police had raided several locations allegedly affiliated with Febrie on Wednesday, 8 July 2026. These locations were suspected of holding evidence of corruption allegedly committed by Febrie.

Among the locations raided were Cafe de’Clan in Cipete, South Jakarta, and Febrie’s house in the Sentul area of Bogor, along with several other sites. During the raids, police secured a number of items of evidence, namely 24-carat gold bullion weighing 74 kilogrammes and millions of dollars in cash. The total value of goods seized from these locations reached Rp 494 billion.

It was after these raids that Sutrimo reportedly returned to Banyumas. However, a few days later, someone allegedly acting on Febrie’s instructions telephoned Sutrimo to return to Jakarta.

“He was called, transferred Rp 5 million, and told to return to Jakarta. Then, the next thing we knew, he came back as a corpse,” Ridwan revealed. Narsim, the head of Wlahar Village, received similar information from Sutrimo’s mother.

On Thursday, 23 July 2026, at around 08.30 Western Indonesia Time, Sutrimo was found sprawled on the forecourt of Mordent Aesthetic Clinic in South Jakarta. Two witnesses at the scene saw Sutrimo’s body lying motionless below the stairs leading to the clinic’s entrance. White foam was coming from his mouth, almost covering his nose. Someone covered Sutrimo’s body with a blue cloth.

Dany, a parking attendant at the scene, said the place where Sutrimo was found had not been operating for several years. According to Google Maps records, the gate of Mordent Aesthetic Clinic had been closed since March 2023.

“At first we didn’t know about the death. Suddenly he was just inside. Whether he was carried by those helping, or what, we don’t know,” Dany said.

Dany and another witness said many people crowded around Sutrimo’s body at the time. However, none of their faces were familiar. There were no local residents or security officers who usually guarded Mordent Aesthetic Clinic.

Farhan—not his real name—an employee who works near the scene, said Mordent Aesthetic Clinic was always guarded even though it had ceased operations. Almost every night its lights were often still on, although no meaningful activity could be seen inside.

“If there was a guard, I would certainly recognise his face because I often parked there and got shooed away. Yesterday (when the incident happened), there was none—who knows where he went,” Farhan said.

Ahmad, a staff member of the Legal Division at Muhammadiyah Taman Puring Hospital, corroborated the testimony of these two witnesses. When Sutrimo arrived at Muhammadiyah Taman Puring Hospital, his mouth still showed a little foam and his nose was discharging fluid.

According to the death report obtained by the detikX team, Sutrimo had contacted a relative and complained of feeling unwell at 06.37. When the relative followed up and went to where Sutrimo was, he was already unconscious. Sutrimo was declared dead on Thursday, 23 July 2026, at 09.00 Western Indonesia Time. Ahmad said Sutrimo’s life could not be saved because he had already died during or before the journey to Muhammadiyah Taman Puring Hospital.

“Based on the examination by the emergency unit medical team, the patient was declared dead before arriving at the hospital, or death on arrival, DOA,” Ahmad told detikX on Thursday, 31 July.

Ahmad said the four people who took Sutrimo’s body to the hospital refused to give their identities. Even so, one of them wrote down his name and mobile number in the chronology of Sutrimo’s death, as required by the hospital for the handover of the body.

In the death report, the name of the person in charge was listed as Febrio Adrianto. Febrio is suspected to be Febrie’s aide. This was confirmed by the mobile number listed in the death report. When traced through the GetContact application, one contact listed Febrio’s name as ADC (aide) to Jampidsus Febrio. The Head of the Legal Information Centre (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung), Anang Supriatna, did not reply to our text messages or calls when asked for confirmation about Febrio’s name. He also gave no comment regarding Sutrimo’s status.

According to Ahmad, Febrio was the one who ultimately rode in the mortuary vehicle taking Sutrimo to the funeral home. He and three others were seen hurriedly leaving the hospital after Sutrimo’s body had been cleaned.

“At around 10.30 Western Indonesia Time or before 11.00, they had already left,” Ahmad said. “From the hospital to Banyumas, it was still by ambulance, but not the same ambulance—just apparently from the same company.”

Sutrimo’s body arrived at the funeral home at around 22.00 Western Indonesia Time on the same day. The Secretary of Wlahar Village, Abas, said four people delivered Sutrimo’s body that night. Two were officers of the mortuary vehicle from PT Medika Bintang Adit, the company that owned the vehicle. The other two claimed to have worked with Sutrimo.

At the funeral home, the four were tight-lipped. They came only to hand over Sutrimo’s body, his identity card (KTP), and condolence money. In less than half an hour, they left again using the same ambulance.

“They said they had to get back to work, so they couldn’t stay long. They were afraid of arriving too late at night or too early in the morning,” Abas said.

Two sources familiar with the investigation into the corruption case ensnaring Febrie Adriansyah said Sutrimo was one of the prospective witnesses who would be summoned by the police for questioning in the case. Sutrimo’s status as head of household (karumga) at Febrie’s house meant he was believed to have information about who had visited Febrie’s home.

However, this information was denied by the Head of Public Relations of Metro Jaya Police, Senior Commissioner Budi Hermanto. “That’s not true,” Budi said via text message to detikX.

During a press conference held on Friday, 31 July 2026, Budi said the police were continuing to investigate Sutrimo’s death. Metro Jaya Police, together with the Criminal Investigation Unit of South Jakarta Metro Police, he said, had now questioned five witnesses caught up in Sutrimo’s death. One of them is a relative of Sutrimo with the initials MA.

“Mr MA is a party who knew the deceased and last saw the witness, namely on Wednesday, 22 July, at around 20.00 Western Indonesia Time in front of Mordent Clinic,” Budi said.

Budi continued that the National Police Forensic Laboratory Centre (Puslabfor) is also examining a number of pieces of secured evidence, including the contents of text messages on Sutrimo’s mobile phone. Police are also studying CCTV footage around the location of Sutrimo’s death.

“But if we are talking about the substance of the investigation, we cannot yet convey that to the public,” Budi said.

detikX contacted the Head of the Criminal Investigation Unit of South Jakarta Police, Iskandarsyah, who is now intensively handling Sutrimo’s death case, to find out more detail about whether or not there was any criminal offence involved. However, as of the publication of this report, Iskandarsyah had not responded at all to our text messages or calls.

We made the same attempt with the Deputy Chief of Metro Jaya Police, Brigadier General Dekananto Eko Purwono. However, Deka asked us to contact Budi. Meanwhile, Budi refused to comment further beyond what he had conveyed in the press conference and his denial of Sutrimo’s status as a prospective witness who would have been summoned in the corruption case ensnaring the former Jampidsus.

Meanwhile, Febrie Diansyah, the lawyer for former Jampidsus Febrie Adriansyah, declined to comment on Sutrimo’s death. At present, Febrie said, he only wished to focus on the substance of the corruption case ensnaring the former Jampidsus.

“It would be better for us to wait together for official information from the Metro Jaya Police, because we are advocates for the case at the Attorney General’s Office,” Febrie told journalists at the KPK detention centre, South Jakarta, on Monday, 27 July 2026.