The charred body of a 20-year-old woman, identified by her initials IA, was found dumped in the bushes in the Ogan Ilir Regency of South Sumatra on Sunday morning. The police investigation into the case revealed an extremely heinous and disturbing crime.
Police say IA was killed and raped by five men on Saturday evening. Four of the suspects have been arrested while one, her ex-boyfriend, is still on the run. Two of the arrested suspects are still only 16.
In their confession to the police, the suspects said that IA’s ex-boyfriend, who has been identified as Asri, gathered all four of them to help him punish IA over an unpaid debt. In Asri’s rented home, he first raped IA while his accomplices held her down. Because IA was resisting, Asri hit her in the head with a block of wood, killing her.
“After she died, it was my turn to rape her,” Abdul, one of the suspected accomplices, said during a press conference for the case, as quoted by Tribun yesterday.
The police said that all of the suspects then took turns raping IA, who was already dead at that point. After they were done, they put her body in a sack and drove her to a secluded area and burned her body in the bushes.
The suspects said they burned IA’s body to cover up their tracks.
The police said IA’s body was completely burned and almost unidentifiable. They are all but certain that the body is of IA after her father confirmed that some items found on the body, such as jewelry, which were hers. That said, the police is conducting a DNA test to be sure.
Speaking to the press, South Sumatra Police Chief Inspector General Zulkarnain did not hide his disdain for the suspects, saying that he has instructed his officers to shoot Asri dead should they find him.
Premeditated murder is a crime punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty in Indonesia.
