Police face difficulties in tracing serial killer

Police face difficulties in tracing serial killer

JAKARTA (JP): The search for the main suspect in the serial
killings of eight boys in the city is difficult work for police
detectives, as they are lacking experience, evidence and
information, an officer said.

"It's indeed a challenging task for us because we have never
dealt with these kinds of killings," a senior city police
detective, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post on
Saturday.

According to the officer, the shortage of material evidence
and information in connection with the killings would make things
difficult for law enforcers to even identify the suspect.

In another related development, East Jakarta Police Chief Lt.
Col. Gories Mere, who also leads a special team to investigate
the serial killings, urged the public to provide any helpful
information to the police.

"What we really need is information from witnesses, especially
those who saw the boys right before their deaths," Mere said on
Saturday.

Eight boys between the ages of nine and 15 have been found
dead over the past two years at the defunct Kemayoran airport in
Central Jakarta and in Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta.

The victims, four of whom still remain unidentified, were
found naked and half-naked with their stomachs torn out and
throats wounded. In most cases, police found only a razor and the
victims' clothes near the decomposed bodies.

Based on data from Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital's forensic
department, the bodies were found with either L-, C-, or U-shaped
wounds between 14 and 90 centimeters long on their stomachs.

"I think the suspect is telling us the story of Jack the
Ripper," Mere once told the Post.

He said that all of the razors were of the same brand.

The first two victims were found dead in the Pondok Kopi area
in April and December 1994 respectively. The next three were in
March, July and September of last year, with the latest three in
April, June and this month respectively.

"We're afraid that the suspect is looking for another victim,"
the detective said.

So far, police assumed that the suspect is a single person, a
poor man and has sadistic, deviated sexual behavior.

"He actually is a heterosexual but being poor, he failed to
get a woman and decided to take a simple way by having sex with
the under-age street boys," head of the Jakarta police
detectives, Col. Paimin AB speculated.

However, a witness for the latest case told police
interrogators that he saw the boy being picked up by a thin man
driving a car several days before the teenager was found dead.

Other police sources speculated that the suspect is a middle-
class person.

"If he's poor, how could he bring the bodies to the places
where the deceased were found?" said a detective.

According to preliminary police and forensic reports, no
bloodstains were found at the locations, indicating that the boys
were sodomized and killed at different places before being thrown
in the bushes at Pondok Kopi and Kemayoran.

"This time, the public doesn't want to see the police
arresting the wrong person again," said the anonymous source.

Last year, police arrested a man -- later identified as Vicky
Randa, 25 -- accused of playing a certain role in the serial
killings.

However, he admitted having anal sex with four children, none
of whom were the victims. Vicky died while in police detention,
weeks after his arrest.

Currently, at least five men have been detained by the police
accused of sodomizing underage boys, most of whom are street
children. (bsr)