Police arrest four in dismemberment case
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Bekasi Police arrested on Thursday four people suspected in the dismemberment of Julius Alexander Matital, 20, whose head and legs were found on Monday afternoon in the Kebon Nanas cemetery in East Jakarta.
Police said they would not announce the identities of the suspects until they finished questioning them.
"Yes, we have detained four people allegedly involved in the murder of Julius. We will reveal their identity soon," Bekasi Police chief of detectives Comr. Suwondo Nainggolan told The Jakarta Post.
He said the four were being questioned at Bekasi Police headquarters.
Police said earlier they had located the house where Julius, a resident of the Harapan Jaya housing complex in Bekasi, West Java, had been killed and dismembered.
Julius was employed in a handicraft home industry in Bekasi.
Two residents of Cipinang, East Jakarta, made the grisly discovery of the body parts on Monday afternoon in the cemetery in Cipinang Besar Selatan.
Doctors who performed the autopsy at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta were able to identify the victim as Julius.
Police questioned eight witnesses, most of them relatives and friends of Julius. Officers also found an axe near the location where the body parts were discovered.
Police said that from witness statements, they were able to establish physical descriptions of the suspects.
Suwondo confirmed that Julius was killed in Bekasi and that parts of his body were dumped in Cipinang and in Legok, Tangerang, Banten province.
"Based on statements from the four suspects, we are now looking for body parts in Tangerang," he said.
Suwondo said that once all of the body parts were recovered, they would be handed over to Julius' family for burial.
The body parts found in the East Jakarta cemetery are being examined at RSCM as part of the police investigation.
"We are still trying to discover a motive for the crime, and the questioning of the suspects is continuing," Suwondo said.