Three commit suicide in Tangerang

The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Three people were found dead here in different locations in the past three days as they allegedly committed suicide while distressed.

Sastro Atmojo, 80, who was found with stab wounds on Monday, allegedly killed himself as he was stressed after his wife died. The second person, Jumiem, 40, a housemaid, was found dead after hanging herself in her employer's house on Monday after the death of her mother and son after her husband had left her. A penniless playboy and drunk, Irwan Gunawan, 23, was also found dead on Friday by his mother, who had scolded him earlier in the day.

Sastro, a resident of Gebong village, Sangiang Jaya subdistrict, was found dead in the bathroom by Soleh, his son, on Monday morning, when the latter went to the bathroom at about 5 a.m. to perform his ritual ablutions.

Soleh said his father lay on the floor with three stab wounds to his stomach and a knife near his body.

"My father suffered distress after my mother's death. My wife and I had frequently foiled his attempts to commit suicide. We even took him to Sumber Waras Hospital in West Jakarta in August," he said.

Separately, Jumiem's employer, Erika, who lives in Batu Ceper subdistrict, said that her maid had washed her children's clothes on Monday morning. But at 12:40 a.m., she found the maid dead.

She said that Jumiem, who hailed from Ngawi, Central Java, suffered from paranoia and frequently felt scared without any apparent reason.

"I think it was because Jumiem's mother died last moth, and a week later her son also died, while her husband married another woman," she said.

Meanwhile, Irwan was found lying dead on the kitchen floor by his mother, Ong Yok Lu, 40, at 7 p.m. on Friday at his parent's house in Cimone Mas Permai residential complex, Karawaci district. He had allegedly committed suicide by drinking insecticide.

His mother, a bread vendor, said that earlier in the day she had scolded her unemployed son because he was always asking for money to date girls and frequently returned home drunk.

She said that she made a living by selling bread as she lived separately from her husband, while Irwan, her only child, had not worked since he graduated from high school.

"My son was jobless and always asked for money from me, but he spent the money I gave him on dating girls and buying liquor, while I worked hard every day," she said.