Police question man over wife's murder

JAKARTA (JP): Police are questioning a depressed murder suspect in connection with the murder of his five-month pregnant wife in the bathroom of his brother's residence in Menteng Atas, Setiabudi district, on Thursday evening.

Setiabudi Police chief of detectives First. Insp. Toga Siambaton identified the victim as Sarinah, 23, who was strangled, after being beaten and knocked several times against a wall allegedly by her husband, Sukirman, 22, a worker at a small food stall.

"Sukirman said his wife always insulted him, calling him a good-for-nothing. He confessed that he also used to beat her up before they were married in January this year. This is really tragic," Toga told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Toga added that the baby boy inside the victim's womb was also killed.

There were also very clear bruises on her stomach. It seems Sukirman also hit her there with a blunt object. He said he also knocked her head and body several times against the bathroom wall as he was sick of her insults, Toga said.

Residents in the neighborhood where the couple lived, on Jl. Lapangan Ros Timur in Tebet, South Jakarta, said the couple were always arguing over lack of money.

"They were a very poor couple. It seems they had a 'shotgun wedding', since the suspect got the victim pregnant," Toga said.

Toga said that the couple had visited the residence of Daroji, Sukirman's brother, in the Menteng Atas area on Thursday evening, and had almost immediately started to exchange harsh words with each other.

Sukirman said that they were arguing, but not loudly, so nobody knew. And then he got angry and pulled her into the bathroom. "There, he beat her, banged her against the wall of the bathroom several times, and then strangled her," Toga said.

He added that although Daroji said he did not hear anything, police would soon question him and the members of his family living in the house, since it did not seem credible that Daroji or anybody else present did not hear Sarinah's screams.

"What Daroji told us, is that after some 10 minutes in the bathroom, his brother came out, locked the bathroom from the outside, went to the living room of the small house, and started to say his evening prayers," Toga said.

"While Sukirman prayed, Daroji wondered where Sarinah was. He tried to open the bathroom door, banged on it, but nothing happened. So, he climbed up and looked down from above -- the bathroom had no roof -- and found Sarinah's corpse." (ylt)