Police form special team to investigate mysterious deaths of Japanese couple in Jimbaran

Puri Gading, Jimbaran, the neighborhood where the Dutchman was found dead.
Puri Gading, Jimbaran, the neighborhood where the Dutchman was found dead.

Denpasar Police has formed a special team along with officers from Bali Police to investigate the strange deaths of an elderly Japanese couple who was found burned and stabbed in their rented house in Jimbaran on Monday.

Denpasar Police Chief Commissioner Hadi Purnomo told media on Wednesday that forensics and a K-9 team were still examining the crime scene in Puri Gading, the residential area in Jimbaran where the Japanese couple had been renting their house.

There’s been a lack of help from CCTV footage in area, causing Purnomo to advise people to install cameras in both their homes and places of business, because you never know when you’re going to need “evidence.”

Despite an external examination in Sanglah Hospital’s medical examiner finding stab wounds on both victims, Matsuba Nurio, 76, and his wife, Matsuba Hiroko, 73, police have been hesitant to classify the couple’s deaths as murder.

However, police are not denying that there are “allegations of criminal acts” done unto the victims.

“There are allegations that this was a crime and that it was someone close to the victims who killed and burned them,” said Purnomo.

So far, around 10 witnesses have been examined, including the couple’s “adopted son,” housekeeper, security guards in the neighborhood, and others, says Purnomo. 



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