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)