Police receive forensic evidence of brutal killing

JAKARTA (JP): The National Police Forensic Laboratory has handed over to City Police the examination results of the finger prints and other pieces of material evidence gathered at the scene of the crime of Monday's brutal killing.

"We've made significant progress from the forensic reports," City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo said after attending the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Indonesian Armed Forces yesterday.

He declined, however, to give further details, saying that the police still need time to prove all the preliminary findings.

Dibyo also refused to confirm whether two suspects, along with the victim's husband, had been arrested for their role in the cold-blooded killing.

"We have to work based on the presumption of innocence," he argued.

When asked if a love affair or a land dispute were behind the killings, Dibyo responded: "There are indicators of those issues but we need time to examine them."

But, he added, the important thing to remember is the "really inhumane" element of this murder case.

Housewife Eli, 31, and three of her five young children, aged two, four and eight, were found dead with severe stab wounds. Her eight-month-old baby was found hanging, but survived. Their bodies were discovered by Eli's eldest daughter at their small house in the Bambu Apus subdistrict of Ciracas, East Jakarta, on Monday afternoon.

All of the victims were buried on Wednesday at Eli's hometown in Kuningan, West Java.

After four days of investigating, police detectives have questioned at least 15 people, including Eli's husband, 33-year- old Rohadi.

Police informed Rohadi, a teacher at four different junior and senior high schools in and around the city, of the deaths while he was teaching at a high school in West Jakarta at around 5 p.m. on the day of the killing.

Police brought Rohadi to the scene of crime yesterday afternoon, the first time he'd been back since the killing.

Witnessed by hundreds of people, Rohadi arrived at and left the scene in tears.

Rohadi, a university graduate, later told the police that some clothing was missing and that several land certificates and documents had been moved from their original places.

Although police officers refused to comment on Rohadi's observations, it is strongly believed that the clothing might have been taken by the killers to replace their blood-stained garments.

Earlier, police used dogs to determine if the killers had entered the washroom after committing the crime or to a nearby public phone booth, where the police found a bloody Rp 100 coin inside its coin box.

However, due to the absence of witnesses, the number of assailants remains unclear.

Police believe the killing took place between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

But a local stall owner told reporters earlier that Eli along with her three children came to his shop around 10 a.m. that morning to buy peanuts, saying that she had three guests at home. (bsr)