UI expert worries on mutilation cases

JAKARTA (JP): Criminologist Erlangga Mesdiana from the University of Indonesia is worried that the failure to solve mutilation cases would lead others to imitate such sadistic killings.

According to Erlangga, suspects in such murders normally attempt to dispose of all evidence to hamper efforts by police to identify the victims.

"This method may encourage other criminals to imitate the crime," the expert told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Erlangga, therefore, strongly urged the police to do their best and seriously probe the mutilation cases to arrest the killers.

Otherwise, society, which has witnessed extreme violence by vigilantes, particularly in the capital, could be influenced by the sadistic murder, he said.

"A killer often suffers from depression, is easily bewildered and is strongly influenced by his community," said Erlangga.

The latest mutilation case was reported in the media early this week, with details of the discovery in three locations of dismembered male body parts.

Several male body parts were found at the Manggarai floodgate in Central Jakarta on Sunday afternoon. In the evening, the upper part of an abdomen was discovered floating in the Muara Angke fishing port in Sunda Kelapa, North Jakarta and the following day, a leg was found in the Cideng River in Grogol, West Jakarta.

So far, Jakarta Police detectives have not announced any progress in the investigation.

A day after the discoveries, a woman visited the morgue at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital -- where the mutilated body parts are kept -- and believes they might be the remains of her missing brother.

She told the forensic pathologists that she needed to see the other hand, which has clear identification marks, to confirm that the dead man was her brother.

The left hand is still missing.

According to forensic expert Mun'im Idries, a man named Kiswondo from Rawamangun, East Jakarta, came on Tuesday to examine the remains. Kiswondo's 37-year-old son is missing.

Kiswondo believes that the body parts are not the remains of his missing son, said Mun'im, who still hopes someone will be able to identify the body. (07)