Utan Kayu couple murdered at home as children sleep

Utan Kayu couple murdered at home as children sleep

JAKARTA (JP): A hotel manager and his wife were murdered on
Sunday in their home while their children and servants were
asleep, said police and relatives of the victims.

Konstantin K., 52, a hotel manager in East Jakarta, and his
wife, Umi Kalsum, 44, were found dead in the living room of their
house in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta.

The servants, who found their bodies, called the police.

A forensic examination showed that the victims sustained
fissure wounds to the back of their heads and there were signs
both were strangled by a plastic string.

Police found a broken ornament made of ivory near Konstantin.
Police believe the ornament was used to kill the couple.

The servants said the night before the murder, Konstantin,
dressed casually in a shirt and sarong, received four guests who
seemed to be familiar with him.

Head of the East Jakarta Police, Lt. Col. Hidayat Fambanyo,
suspected the four visitors were the murderers. "We suspect the
four guests as being the culprits because they were the last
people to see the victims alive," Hidayat told reporters on
Monday.

A relative, Dachrul, said a room on the first floor was
ransacked and two wallets containing about Rp 100,000, which
belonged to the daughters, were stolen. Electronic goods were not
taken and other rooms in the house remained intact.

Hidayat said one of the victims' cars, a metallic green 1993
Toyota Kijang with license plate number B 1630 EI, was missing
from the garage. Police believe the car was taken by the culprits
to escape in.

"This is not a robbery because valuable goods were not taken
from the house. We strongly suspect the murder was motivated by a
personal dispute among the victims and four men," Hidayat
explained.

Police quoted the servants as saying that Konstantin, who was
also a lecturer at the Economic School of the University of
Indonesia, returned home at about 8.30 p.m. A few minutes later
the four men, one identified as Fiki by the servants, came and
talked with the victims.

The victims' eldest daughter, Indri, a first-year university
student and her sister, Mita, a third-year student at a senior
high school in Central Jakarta, were in their bedrooms upstairs.

The youngest, Reza, in his third year in junior high school in
Cikini subdistrict, was sleeping downstairs and was awoken when
he heard a scream for help at about 11.30 p.m. He was so
frightened that he did not leave his bedroom.

"I was afraid. I didn't dare go outside until this morning,"
Reza said at his home, which was crowded by friends and neighbors
expressing their condolences.

He said he could identify one of the visitors, who he
described had a crewcut and often visited his parents.

Police said they had traced the suspects' whereabouts and
pledged to solve the murder soon. (01)