Police name son of murder victim as sole suspect

JAKARTA (JP): Police have named Ardy Brata Ishar, 56, a former national judo athlete, as the sole suspect in the violent murder of his 80-year-old widowed mother at their Menteng home in Central Jakarta on Saturday.

The motive of the killing remains a mystery because the suspect is in an unstable condition, Central Jakarta Police detectives chief Maj. Boediono Sandi said on Sunday.

Ardy, the third of four children, will be charged under Article 338 of the Criminal Code for allegedly stabbing to death his mother, Nenny Wahyuni Ishar, at their home on Jl. Jambu on Saturday morning, Boediono said.

"That's 15 years imprisonment. Due to his mental illness, he may get some leniency, but nothing more," the officer told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Nobody witnessed the murder, but all evidence collected by the police so far points to Ardy as the sole murderer, he said.

"From the testimonies of the housemaid Wari, the weapon used in the killing, and Ardy's unstable condition, we're quite sure that he's the killer," Boediono said.

"But we do not know the real motive of the murder as yet."

Nenny was fast asleep in her home when she was stabbed in the mouth and groin. Her throat had also been slashed.

Ardy told the police a few different versions of the murder. One time he said he killed his mother simply to drive out "demons" from inside her body, Boediono said.

"At about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, Wari said that she heard Ardy insisting that he wanted to go out of the house to take a walk, but his mother forbade him. Wari did not find this extraordinary, since the mother and son fought once in a while," Boediono said.

"She then saw Ardy enter his mother's room, but thought nothing of it, and left for grocery shopping. When she returned, she saw Nenny lying on the ground, blood seeping from her head with Ardy hovering over the dead body."

"She quietly went to her neighbor's house, afraid that she would be killed in the same way. After spending some time there, she asked her neighbor's maid to accompany her into Nenny's house to face Ardy."

Unaware

On Saturday, the suspect told reporters at the Menteng Police jail that he committed the crime after his mother caught him flirting with Wari in the bathroom.

He, however, claimed he was not fully aware of what he had done.

"I loved my mother, but she sometimes could be so annoying," he said, staring blankly at the ceiling in his cell.

He added that his mother was too strict with him.

"She wouldn't allow me to go outside the house or visit anybody. She also told me to stay away from our servant," Ardy said.

He said he was in love with their 19-year-old servant Wari, who had worked at the house for the last nine months. "I think she likes me too, but my mother doesn't approve."

After being scolded by his mother, Ardy said he went to his room and sang hymns and prayed, while his mother went to bed that morning.

Ardy told the police he entered his mother's room with two knives and a machete.

He later reportedly confessed to killing his mother after mistaking her for an evil spirit.

"I heard a female voice telling me to kill the spirit. She was directing me to do exactly as she told: Get this! Get that! Hit it here! Hit it there!.

"The voice told me to hit the evil spirit with a log, which I did," Ardy said.

Police concluded Ardy struck his mother's head with his left fist, which was later severely swollen.

Ardy's eldest sister, Lely, who visited him at the Menteng Police station few hours after the killing, told police officers that her brother was mentally ill.

The victim, Nenny, was found lying naked on her bedroom floor with her head nearly severed. She had seven stab wounds in the abdomen and a kitchen knife was protruding from her groin.

According to Wari, she and fellow servant Soleha from a nearby house went back to the house at 10 a.m and saw Ardy pacing in his mother's room. He then went to his own room and began to mumble.

"I saw him put the bloody machete on the desk at the front of his room," Soleha said.

Ardy later said he had suffered from a mental disorder since he was 25, which had forced him leave a local university before completing an engineering course.

"I've been frequently admitted to psychiatric institutions ever since," he said.

Officer Boediono said the police had asked the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital to conduct psychological tests on Ardy.

The body of Nenny, after undergoing a postmortem examination at Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital, was sent to Cikini Hospital on Sunday.

The victim will be buried on Monday in Ciampea, Bogor, a one- hour drive to the south of Jakarta. (ylt/01/bsr)