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)