Taxi driver brutally murdered in morning robbery in Bekasi

JAKARTA (JP): A 50-year-old taxi driver was found dead on Sunday morning in a vacant field in Tambun, Bekasi, with severe slash wounds over most of his body and face, an officer said.

Second Lt. Harianto of the Bekasi Police said the Prestasi taxi driver, identified as Benny Yance, was brutally slashed while in his vehicle and robbed by three men who were passengers during the wee hours of the morning.

All three suspects, aged between 18 and 20, were arrested within a few hours at their respective residences, due to a report made by a security guard who spotted the stolen taxi parked in front of one of the suspects' homes at Kampung Kompa, Karangsatria subdistrict, also in Tambun, Harianto said.

The officer said two of the suspects, Asep Sujana, 18, and Sahroji, 20, were arrested three hours after the killing, which took place at 2:30 a.m.

The other suspect, Alex, 20, was arrested at 3 p.m. while he was sleeping at his house, which is not far from the residences of the other two.

Harianto said the body of the driver, a resident of Bekasi Jaya subdistrict, also in Bekasi, was found by a local ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver at 8 a.m. in the field of the Rawa Kalong area of Tambun, Bekasi. His body, which was face downwards, was covered with a mat.

The police were first informed about the taxi by Rohali, 35, a security guard, who reported that the car's backseat was smeared with blood.

The taxi was parked in front of his house, Harianto said.

"As he was suspicious about it, Rohali quickly reported the find to the Tambun Police," he said.

It was later revealed that two of the suspects were Rohali's neighbors.

The Tambun Police detectives, Harianto explained, first arrived on the scene to pick up Asep Sujana and Sahroji for questioning, but Alex was not there.

About the same time, the Tambun Police received a report from another security guard about an ojek driver, who spotted a body in an empty field.

Based on a preliminary investigation, the three suspects said they tried to get one of the taxis parked near a market development project in Bekasi to drive them to the Tambun area, Harianto said.

"They tried to stop several taxis but failed. And Benny, who had just arrived, picked them up," the officer said.

He said when they reached the empty field, they forced Benny to hand over his money and the car, but he refused to do so.

Sahroji allegedly strangled Benny with a thick rope while the other two reportedly slashed his body with a machete and a knife, the officer said.

"Judging from the wounds to his hands, it appears that Benny tried hard to resist them," Harianto said.

"Benny's body was dumped in that empty field, while the suspects took off with the car," he said.

Separately, Benny's colleagues from the taxi company confirmed the suspects' testimonies, saying that they refused to pick the three men up because they acted suspiciously.

"It seemed that they were trying to hide something inside their jackets," Waljiono told reporters at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital's morgue.

"But Benny, who had just arrived and needed money, picked them up right away, without giving us an opportunity to tell him that these passengers were behaving strangely," Waljiono said.

Benny's wife did not bring their three children to identify her husband's body after she was told about the severity of his wounds, Waljiono said. (06)