Relatives identify murdered transsexual

JAKARTA (JP): The mutilated body of a man found near Tanjung Barat Railway Station in Lenteng Agung, Jagakarsa, on Monday morning has been identified as Hugo Yonathan, alias Ihok, 35.

South Jakarta Police chief of detectives Maj. Rycko Amelza Daniel said on Tuesday that Yuli, alias Etty, who heads the South Jakarta Communication Forum for Transsexuals (FKW), helped by alerting several FKW members to look for a missing forum member.

"They also alerted Hugo's family, who went over to the Jagakarsa Police substation and then to Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, where they identified the body. Hugo lived in Depok, south of here," Rycko told reporters.

"Hugo was both a singing beggar and a prostitute, who usually worked around Depok and Tanjung Barat."

"He was probably killed by his Sunday night date. Sperm was found on his buttocks ... he was sodomized before the murder."

South Jakarta Police detectives are questioning four people in relation to the murder. Rycko said his men were still investigating the murder of Hugo, whose hands had been cut off.

The hands of the victim have not been found.

The four witnesses are Sachrul, 20, an employee of Pasar Minggu Railway Station; Aji Sumantri, a teenage street singer; Usin, a man who found a plastic packet containing the victim's blood some 50 meters from the crime scene; and Yuli, alias Etty.

Dony, Hugo's stepbrother, told reporters at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital's morgue that the victim was working at a beauty salon in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

Hugo, who was adopted by Dony's parents reportedly because his biological parents were embarrassed by his feminine behavior, was the second child in the family.

"His true family left him here and they went to the Netherlands when he was just a little boy," Dony said.

He believes the victim had no enemies as Hugo was calm in nature and never had any problems with his friends.

A security guard in Kampung Lio, Samin, said Hugo was on his way to the vicinity of Tanjung Barat Railway Station on the night he was murdered.

"Hugo was approached by three men and after a brief discussion one of the men stopped a taxi and they all left the area.

"That's the last time I saw him alive," Samin said.

Hugo's body was found on Monday morning by residents living near the busy railway station. The body was wearing black trousers, while a cream sweater covered the upper part of the body. A wig of very coarse hair lay beside the head.

Found near the body was a handbag filled with, among other things, a hairbrush, two lipsticks and a packet of peanuts.

There were eight stab wounds in the back, four in the abdomen and two in the neck. (ylt/06)