Police come close to Levina's murder

JAKARTA (JP): After eight months of intense investigations police yesterday claimed they have found a person believed to have played a role in the murder of a six-year-old girl found dead near her bicycle in Ancol Dreamland, North Jakarta, last March.

"We are currently focusing on this person as our main suspect (in relation to the murder of the girl)," head of the City Police Crime Investigation Directorate Col. Nurfaizi told reporters yesterday.

Unfortunately, he said, "the suspect disappeared without a trace when police raided his/her place."

Nurfaizi refused to give further details about the police investigation.

"I don't think it is a good idea to reveal too much," he said.

Levina Dwisy, the second of three children of an ethnic Chinese bicycle shop owner, left her house on Jl. Pantai Sanur in the exclusive Ancol Timur real estate complex on the morning of March 24.

Wearing pajamas, the little girl was riding her bike to find her parents, who had joined a morning exercise program near the complex. It was the last time she was seen alive.

Levina was found dead under some bushes near a temple outside the defunct Ancol race track the next morning.

Her attacker had apparently used her clothes to strangle her.

So far, there is no evidence that the girl was raped before her death.

According to the deputy chief of the crime investigation unit of the North Jakarta police precinct, First Lt. R. Rasyidi, the autopsy report issued by the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital states that a blunt object had been inserted into the vagina of the little girl.

North Jakarta police detectives handling the case believe the kindergarten student was murdered by killers hired by a lover of the girl's father.

Five special teams have been established to help police with investigations, each team has been assigned to a specific task.

At least 13 people have been questioned in connection with the case, including two fishermen living nearby, the housemaids and driver of the victim's family as well as the security guards at the elite housing complex, where the deceased's parents live. (bsr)