Suspect admits abducting, denies raping, killing victim
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A suspect in a multiple kidnapping case that terrorized the city over the last seven months has denied that he raped and killed one of the victims, but confessed to abducting 23-month-old Putri Nabila from her parents' house in Pademangan, North Jakarta.
The suspect, Dani Saputra, 21, was arrested in July in Surabaya and is in the custody of Pademangan Police.
Dani told the press on Tuesday that his father, Tomo Andrianto, alias Toni Buntung (Decapitated Toni), ordered him to carry out two kidnappings, and told him they could use the ransom from the kidnappings to start an honest, new life. His mother Maryati, alias Tan Mon Lai, supported the plan.
Assigned the task of scouting victims, Dani targeted and kidnapped Nabila in March.
The plan went well until the family found out that Nabila's father, Firdaus, who was unemployed at the time, could not pay the Rp 15 million (US$1,764.71) ransom.
Forty days later, Nabila's body was found in a cardboard box in Bogor, with marks indicating that she had been raped before she was killed.
Dani denied either raping or killing her.
"Father slept with the little girl every night behind closed doors. I don't know what he did to her. One day, we found the girl dead," he said.
Dani claimed that he was shocked at her death, but his parents comforted him and suggested he find another victim.
The next target was Widya, a four-year-old daughter of the warden at Paledang Penitentiary in Bogor, where Dani had served a sentence in 2001 for auto theft. The family demanded a ransom of Rp 10 million, which was paid, and the girl was returned safely. The action took place in June.
But Dani was disappointed, as his father kept the money for himself, and showed no intention of using it to start an "honest" new life; so he left his family and joined his girlfriend at her boarding house in Surabaya.
He has denied any knowledge of other kidnappings and murders committed by his family.
In July, Dani's older brother Jefri Saputra, 23, allegedly kidnapped Dwi Yunita, 9, in Cipayung, East Jakarta. Dwi's body was found a week later in a cardboard box in Karawang, West Java, as her parents had failed to pay the ransom. She had also been raped before she was killed.
The family then kidnapped four siblings from Cianjur, West Java, and released three of them unharmed, but kept six-year-old Riska.
After four-year-old Budi Bahari was kidnapped on Sept. 20 in Cilacap, Central Java, Cilacap Police coordinated with police from other jurisdictions to track down the kidnappers.
The police's search was reportedly aided by a cellular network provider and officials of a private bank. The kidnappers used the bank's automatic teller machines (ATMs) to withdraw the ransom payment.
Locating Jefri through his cell phone signals, the police predicted from which ATM he would withdraw the "ransom".
He fell into the trap on Sept. 26, and was shot while trying to escape. Jefri was able to reveal his family's whereabouts and that of the two kidnapped children before he died.
Cilacap Police raided the family's home and detained Toni, Maryati and Jefri's wife Imas, 19. Imas took her son Jay, 2, with her. Police managed to rescue Riska and Budi, who were unharmed.
Toni is currently being treated at a hospital in Cilacap for gunshot wounds he sustained when trying to elude police during the raid.