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)