Police say more than one killer in Hutagalung case
Police say more than one killer in Hutagalung case
JAKARTA (JP): After one year of investigation, City Police
made an overdue, confusing statement on Sunday morning that the
brutal killing of six members of Herbin Hutagalung's family was
committed by more than one person.
According to City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto,
police did not publicly reveal the exact number of suspects
intentionally, in order to help identify the whereabouts of
other alleged suspects.
Since the killing in Bekasi on Jan. 5 last year, police had
given one name, Suyono, alias Gendut, as the only suspect in the
murders.
Speaking to reporters in the early hours of Sunday, Hindarto
announced suddenly that police had arrested one of six suspected
killers of the Hutagalung family one month after the killings
took place.
The suspect, identified as Marsi, 26, had been arrested in his
hometown of Tulungagung, East Java, in February last year, the
police chief said.
For many months, police identified Gendut as the only suspect in
the killing of Herbin's wife, sister-in-law, and his four children,
aged between three and 18 years old, at the family's house in
Kampung Sawah, Jatiwarna village, Pondok Gede, Bekasi, located 30
kilometers east of Jakarta. The police discovered that all of the
victims had been clubbed to death with blunt objects.
Police found three wooden blocks, a large stone, the type usually
used in the construction of house foundations, electric cables, a
bed sheet and rambutan peels and seeds at the scene of the crime.
At Gendut's hut in Bojong Tua, Jatimakmur, police confiscated a
50-gram gold bracelet and Rp 250,000 (US$118) in cash which were
believed to have been taken from the Hutagalungs.
Police had also confiscated a pair of jeans and a shirt smeared
with blood and believed to belong to Gendut.
Police said at that time that the Hutagalung family used to hire
Gendut, who also comes from Tulungagung, to do some construction
work at the house.
Several days after the murders, head of the Pondok Gede police
subprecinct, Capt. Ramser Silalahi said the killing might have been
committed by more than one person. However, he "changed his mind"
within the next few days and said that the murders were committed by
one person only.
This judgment was based on the preliminary testimonies of at least
nine people and by observations made by police from a number of new
items of evidence, Ramser said at that time.
"Marsi has been used by us to help find Gendut and the other
suspects, by searching many places in Java, Bali and Sumatra,"
Hindarto said.
Police still believe that Gendut is living and working somewhere
in Malaysia.
According to Hindarto, Marsi had come to his friend, Gendut, one
day in January last year asking for a job as a construction worker.
Gendut asked him to come along with him and find a job together with
four other people.
Using a minivan, the group came to the Hutagalungs' house and
committed the crime, the police chief said.
"Four of them, including Gendut, went inside the house, while the
other two, on of which was Marsi, were assigned to monitor the scene
from the front yard," Hindarto said.
Based on preliminary investigations, Marsi had admitted that he
killed Herbin's wife, Rodiah, who had tried to escape from the house
"We're still investigating the whereabouts of the other suspects,
with the help of Marsi," Hindarto said.(bsr)