Unemployed man arrested for murder of woman, child

Unemployed man arrested for murder of woman, child

JAKARTA (JP): Cilandak Police detectives have arrested the
suspected killer of a young mother and her three-year-old son
after a one-week intensive investigation.

Cilandak Police chief Maj. Nurhayati said on Wednesday the
suspected killer, Urip Ma'Muri, also known as Ucok, 19, was
apprehended a day earlier by her officers in the suspect's
hometown of Mbaros village in the Ketanggungan district of
Brebes, Central Java.

"We spotted him in his hometown, still wearing the blue jeans
belonging to Suyuti, the husband of the victim, Komariah,"
Nurhayati said at the Cilandak Police station.

During preliminary questioning, Ucok admitted to having killed
Komariah after the woman refused to give him a match for smoking,
Nurhayati said.

"He said he wanted to smoke badly," the policewoman said.

The 21-year-old housewife and her son, Abdurohman, were killed
last Wednesday afternoon in their three-room rented home in Lebak
Bulus.

All three rooms, including the front door, were locked when
the suspect committed the crime.

Nurhayati said Ucok entered the victim's house through a
bathroom in the house next door, which is rented by relatives of
Suyuti together with some drivers, some of whom are friends of
the suspect.

The bathroom has two doors for each house.

Ucok, who is being detained at the Cilandak Police station,
said his friends, the drivers, allowed him to temporarily stay
with them since he had been out of work for five months.

"On Tuesday, I heard water running in the bathroom. I opened
the connecting door slightly and saw Komariah bathing. I peaked
at least four times," Ucok, who used to work as a construction
worker, said.

"The next day, when my friends went to work, I tried to look
for a job, but found nothing. I came back home and turned on the
television and watched the General Session of the People's
Consultative Assembly," he said.

"I then wanted to have a cigarette. I saw that Komariah's
connecting door was open. I barged in to ask for a match when she
saw me. She told me that I should have some manners. She told me
that she did not have any matches," Ucok said.

Ucok said he was upset and went to a nearby vegetable vendor
where he stole a knife and then returned to Komariah's home.

He said he snuck up behind Komariah, held the knife to her,
telling her to hand over all her valuables.

"Like a foolish woman, she started screaming and tried to pull
my hair. Her hand accidentally hit the knife, and the knife hit
my face. When I saw blood coming from my face, I got angry. So I
stuck the knife in her stomach," Ucok said.

"She was still screaming. So I cut her throat. Just as she
went quiet, her boy got up. He started crying for his mother. I
put my hands over his mouth. When I left, he was still crying."

"To make him pass out, I hit him across the face. He still did
not pass out. So I cut his throat, too," the suspect said.

Ucok said when he saw the bodies and the victims' blood on his
pants and shirt, he panicked.

He said he then opened Suyuti's wardrobe, took out a pair of
black jeans and a shirt and changed, but by mistake left his
blood-soaked clothes behind.

He said he ran to the bathroom, got on the roof, jumped to the
ground outside the house where he then remembered that he left
his clothes in Komariah's house.

He said he decided to return to the house the same way but
fell from the roof into the bathtub. The clothes he was wearing
got wet.

He said he took his blood-stained shirt and pants and left
them soaking in a bucket.

Ucok said he then changed into a clean pair of blue jeans and
a shirt, which belonged to Suyuti.

"I ran to my girlfriend's home in Pesanggrahan Mas, Kebayoran
Lama in South Jakarta. From there, I went to the home of my
cousin, Susi, in Kalideres, West Jakarta."

When police questioned Susi, she said that Ucok told her that
the bloody clothes, the knife he was carrying with him and the
cut on his face were from a brawl in Blok M in South Jakarta.

Susi later confessed to police that Ucok was heading for his
hometown in Brebes. (ylt)