Police investigate teenager's death

TANGERANG (JP): Local police are investigating the death of Syarifuddin, 15, a junior high school student from Gunung Sindur, Bogor, whose body was found in a housing and business complex in Serpong, Tangerang, on Monday.

"We've questioned several people who were the last to see the victim," Tangerang Police chief Lt. Col. Pudji Hartanto said on Wednesday.

According to a police report, Syarifuddin's body was found by local resident Inang, 19, who was cutting grass in an empty field at about 5 p.m. when he made the grisly discovery

"His body was already decomposing and there was a stab wound on his back," Pudji said.

Syarifuddin's father, 45-year-old Sapin, said his son had been missing since Saturday.

"It turned out that Syarifuddin and his classmates were spending the weekend at the Serpong complex.

"The students said they were chased off a golf course in the complex by security guards. About 100 of them ran away to hide in the nearby Lengkong Gudang village in Serpong," Pudji said.

However, local residents, believing the students had come to the village to start a brawl, detained a number of the students and handed them over to the Serpong Police.

It is not known why the students spent the weekend in Serpong, which is about a two-hour drive from Bogor.

Pudji said the boy's family asked police to thoroughly investigate the incident, adding that the victim's family voiced their belief that Syarifuddin was murdered either by local residents or security guards at the housing and business complex. (41/edt)