Progress made in investigation of brutal killing
Progress made in investigation of brutal killing
JAKARTA (JP): City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo proudly
announced yesterday that the investigation of Monday's brutal
killing has made remarkable progress, but he declined to reveal
the identities of any suspects.
Police determined two strong possible motives: a love affair
or a land dispute, one of which led to the brutal killing of a
31-year-old housewife and her three young children, he said here
yesterday.
"We've come to a provisional conclusion that the motive for
the murder is not robbery."
The two-star general, however, declined to go into detail,
saying that the police are still collecting valuable information.
He made the statements after a meeting on the murder case with
his staff.
The police are also studying the possible role of the Rohadi,
who was the woman's husband and a teacher at several high
schools, in the killing.
"As police officers we have to suspect everybody," he said.
"Later, we'll cross the suspected persons off the list if we find
they are innocent."
Housewife Eli and three of her children, aged two, four and
eight, were found dead with severe stab wounds. 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.
Dibyo said that the police have not yet arrested or named
anyone as the suspect in the killing.
"We're still questioning a number of people but no single
arrest has been made so far," he said.
However, it is strongly believed that some of the suspected
killers and the alleged mastermind have been identified and are
now under police surveillance.
"What we badly need now is strong material evidence to name
them as the suspects," said a police detective.
Apart from fingerprints and blood, police found no valuable
material evidence at the scene of crime.
Police are also waiting for the post-mortem examination of the
four bodies from the hospital, and the results of fingerprints
examinations from the National Police Forensic Laboratory.
But Dibyo guaranteed: "This case will be solved in a matter of
days."
According to several detectives, the original target of the
murderers was Eli. However, the killers had no choice due to the
presence of the three innocent children.
Eli's husband, Rohadi, was informed by the police of the
deaths while teaching at a high school in West Jakarta at around
5 p.m. on the day of the killing.
A colleague of his at a school in Tangerang said that Rohadi
was not in good health that Monday morning and later decided to
cancel a test scheduled for his students.
Rohadi left the school half an hour before the police arrived
and told his friend that he was going to teach at another school
in Cibinong.
One of his students, however, said that his teaching schedule
at that school was not on Monday but Tuesday.
Despite going to Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital on
Tuesday, Rohadi left the hospital without seeing the remains of
his wife and three children.
Rohadi teaches economics, Arabic and Pancasila ideology at
four different schools.
His colleagues said that Rohadi is a nice and friendly man,
though his neighbors said they knew nothing of his family as they
just moved to the neighborhood eight months ago.
According to the neighbors, Rohadi usually left home early in
the morning and returned home after 7 p.m. in the evening.
Eli, they said, was a housewife who was busy looking after her
five children. (bsr)