Police arrest alleged killer of teenage girl
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Police announced on Tuesday the arrest of the lone suspect in the murder of 11-year-old Heni Febrina "Febi" Purnama Sari, who was kidnapped, beaten, raped and killed on Feb. 17, two days after her birthday.
Ahmad Yusuf, 33, who lived in the rented house where the body of Febi was discovered several days after her abduction, was arrested on Monday morning at his parents' house on Jl. Kramat Pulo II in Tanah Tinggi subdistrict, Central Jakarta. He is being held at Jakarta Police Headquarters.
During the investigation into the murder, led by Bekasi Police detectives chief Comr. Yudi Agustinus Benyamin Sihaeloe, officers found fingerprints, hairs and sperm from the suspect at the crime scene.
Febi's body was found in the bathroom of a rented house on Jl. Masjid Arrahma in Jati Rahayu, Bekasi.
Febi, who was in the sixth grade at Pamardi Yuana Bhakti elementary school in Pondok Gede, Bekasi, disappeared when returning home from the Pondok Gede Mall with two friends. Her friends said they last saw Febi when she got off a public minivan near her house in the Sinar Kasih housing estate in Jatimakmur, Bekasi.
Neighbors reported seeing the girl walk out of the housing complex with an unidentified man.
During initial questioning, Ahmad, who is unemployed, reportedly told police he persuaded the victim to follow him to his house by promising her a doll as a birthday present. Once inside the house, he reportedly tried to initiate a sexual encounter with the girl, who refused and began screaming.
According to police, the girl's screams panicked Ahmad, who covered Febi's mouth, slammed her head against the floor several times and strangled her. Ahmad then raped the victim twice before covering her body with a sheet.
Asep Gampang, Febi's uncle and a reporter at the Harian Merdeka daily, said he had researched Ahmad's history and uncovered two previous alleged attacks on children.
He said that in 2003, Ahmad was a suspect in the kidnapping, rape and murder of another 11-year-old girl in Pondok Gede. The girl's family refused to allow an autopsy to be performed and the case never went to court.
In 2002, Ahmad was accused of sodomizing a four-year-old boy in his neighborhood in Tanah Tinggi.