Sadistic kidnappers still have 2 children
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Two children, who were kidnapped last week from their houses in Cianjur, West Java, are still in the hands of a sadistic gang, known as the Saputra brothers gang.
Police are still hunting the suspects, Jeffry Saputra alias Jerry, 25, and his younger brother, Deni Saputra alias Dani, 21, who are believed to have also kidnapped at least five children in Jakarta, Bogor and Cianjur.
First Insp. Widodo, deputy chief of detectives of Cianjur Police, admitted on Sunday that they are still chasing the Saputra brothers.
"We still have no clue on their whereabouts," Widodo told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, adding that the two children were still in the hands of the kidnappers.
Earlier last week, the gang -- using a green Daihatsu Zebra minivan with a fake license plate -- kidnapped two girls and two boys in Cianjur and demanded a total ransom of Rp 15 million.
After the parents of the boys paid a ransom of Rp 5 million, the boys were released but the girls are still being held, while their parents struggle to collect the ransom demanded. One of the boys was found tied up and naked in a forest in Cileungsi, Bogor, while the other was found in a soccer field in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta.
Meanwhile, Jakarta Police have announced that they would support the investigation into the serial kidnappings because the cases had involved other provincial police authorities.
"We will track down the suspects ... What they have done is really sadistic," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Prasetyo told the Post over the weekend.
He said that the city police would provide the technology necessary to track down the Saputra brothers.
Police have confirmed that the same gang was responsible for at least three kidnappings in Pademangan, North Jakarta, Cipayung, East Jakarta, and Cianjur, West Java.
"Their motive was money and sexual perversion," said a detective.
The police actually have a photograph and sketches of the kidnappers, but they have not allowed them to be published in the mass media for fear that the perpetrators might panic and harm the two girls who were kidnapped in Cianjur.
The kidnapping in Pademangan, which took place in March, was the first that was believed to have been carried out by the gang this year.
The gang first tried to win the trust of the victim's family over a period of two or three months. The gang even rented a house near the family, and when the time came, the gang members, Deni and Jefry, would politely take their children for a walk after asking their parents permission.
Deni allegedly kidnapped a 23-month-old girl in Pademangan and demanded a ransom of Rp 15 million. The parents could not afford the ransom and after a month of being held by the gang the child was found death in Bogor.
The baby girl was brutally raped and murdered.
In mid June, Deni, who is an ex-convict who had spent some time in 2001 in Paledang Penitentiary, Bogor, allegedly kidnapped a four-and-a-half-year old girl, the daughter of the head of the penitentiary. The child was released after her father paid the ransom of Rp 5 million.
Earlier this month, Jerry was believed to have kidnapped a nine-year-old girl in Cipayung, using the same green minivan as in the Cianjur case. After the girl's parents paid the Rp 3.8 million ransom, the girl's body was found in a cardboard box in Karawang, West Java.
Second Insp. Hariyadi, chief of detectives in Cipayung Police subprecinct said that before the girl was murdered, she had also been brutally raped and beaten.
Media reports said that the victims usually lived in crowded residential areas and came from lower and middle class families.
The reports also implied that the brothers were accompanied by a woman and another young man. The perpetrators of two recent kidnappings in Tangerang between March and July are also believed to be part of the gang.