Severed hand stolen out of morgue: Police

Severed hand stolen out of morgue: Police

JAKARTA (JP): South Jakarta police detectives will question
several morgue and forensic staff members of the Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital over a severed hand which was sent
on Monday to a woman in Setiabudi subdistrict, South Jakarta.

"We suspect the hand was stolen out of the hospital's morgue,"
South Jakarta Police chief of detectives Maj. Rycko Amelza Daniel
said on Wednesday.

"The hand was most likely cut off the corpse of suspected
thief Rudy, alias Hendrik, after his body was put in the morgue
on April 5."

Hendrik was shot to death by East Jakarta Police over a
reported theft on April 5. Police took the corpse to the morgue
on the same day.

"I've sent one officer to get the names of the morgue staff
members responsible for overseeing corpses from April 5 to April
10, as the hand was received by the woman, Semiasih, on that last
day," Rycko said.

He added that forensic doctors who performed the external and
internal postmortem examinations on Hendrik's corpse would also
be summoned for questioning.

Morgue chief Mardiono said staff members learned of Hendrik's
missing hand only after it was returned from the postmortem
examination at the forensic division of the School of Medicine at
the University of Indonesia.

"There is a possibility that the hand was stolen from the
morgue ... it is under such heavy renovation. All the corpses
have been taken out of the freezer and laid out in open rooms
which have no doors and windows. Anybody could enter the rooms
from either side," Mardiono told reporters.

"At night, there are only three staff members overseeing the
morgue, and many people are coming and going at all hours."

Police data shows an external examination on the corpse was
conducted on April 7 by forensic expert Dr. Wibisana, while the
internal examination was done by Dr. Siswandi Sutiyono on April
8. The hand was missing by then.

A morgue source said the fact that the hand was missing was
not shown in the initial examination report.

"It's clearly the fault of the hospital's morgue," the source
said. Meanwhile, morgue staff members have not elaborated any
further.

Forensic expert Mun'im Idris said on Wednesday that morgue
staff members could not easily wash their hands of this affair by
attributing the slipup to the renovation.

"The morgue should be held accountable for every body that is
admitted there," Mun'im said.

Setiabudi Police detectives received a report on Monday that
Semiasih, 72, had received a package containing a severed hand,
which was wearing a plastic glove. The package also contained a
stone.

Rycko, however, said later that there was no plastic glove on
the hand, but that the skin had lost its elasticity to such a
degree that it looked like one.

Semiasih was quoted by the police as saying that the package
was delivered to her house by Mardani, an employee of courier
company CV Titipan Kilat, or more popularly known as Tiki.

Mardani had left the package at Semiasih's residence without
obtaining the signature of the occupant for the delivery receipt,
which is normally mandatory.

Police traced on Monday evening the address of the man who
mailed the package.

The sender had written the name and return address as:
"Suawandi, Jl. Pulausiri Timur, Blok AA No. 87, Bekasi Selatan."

Rycko said on Wednesday that the address turned out to be
fake.

"There is a Jl. Pulausiri, but no Pulausiri Timur. And,
there's no Block AA. The courier representative who took the
order at the Bekasi branch said the man who handed her the
package was heavy set, dark-skinned and had curly hair," Rycko
said.

He said police were keeping a watch on Semiasih's house, as he
suspected that one of her close relatives or someone in the
house, might have ordered the hand, but that it was opened by
mistake by Semiasih's servant Sarohtun.

He said he would also question Mardani for leaving a package
at a residence without obtaining the occupant's signature.
(ylt/06)