Bereft Families Called to Report for Post-Mortem Identification

People who have lost relatives are expected to report immediately to the police. People can contact the Banjarnegara Police Office via WhatsApp on 082326444401.

ARSIP HUMAS POLRES BANJARNEGARA

The Banjarnegara Resort Police opened a missing persons complaint post regarding the murder case by Slamet Tohari, a money-making shaman in Banjarnegara, Central Java, Wednesday (5/4/2023).

SEMARANG, KOMPAS — Police have identified the sexes of nine out of 12 victims of the serial murder at Balun village, Wanayasa district, Banjarnegara, Central Java. The suspect is Slamet Tohari, who allegedly murdered the victims who he had lured into a money multiplication scam. Six of the dead bodies have been identified as male and three female, aged between 25 and 50 years.

People, especially those in Tasikmalaya and Cirebon in West Java, Jakarta, Gunungkidul in Yogyakarta and Lampung and Palembang in South Sumatra, who have lost relatives are expected to report immediately to the police. The reports are needed to enable further process of postmortem identification of the bodies. People can contact the Banjarnegara Police Office via WhatsApp on 082326444401.

Relatives of missing peoples from these areas are expected to send victim’s antemortem data, such as academic diplomas, identity cards (KTP) and photos with specific poses that enable the recognition of the front teeth. When filing the reports, the families or relatives, especially those from outside Java, are reminded to provide addresses and contact numbers. Banjarnegara Police will follow it up with institutional coordination to allow a family medical examination to be done by the medical team from the regional police of the family’s domicile.

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“The nine bodies are six men and three women. The men were age between 40 and 50 years. For the three women, the ages were between 25 and 35 years,” Central Java Police Chief Insp. Gen. Ahmad Luthfi said in Semarang on Wednesday (5/4/2023) as he was explaining the results of the disaster victim identification (DVI) process.

As reported earlier, the Banjarnegara police uncovered the serial murder with all 12 victims having been initially duped into believing that Slamet Tohari had the ability to multiply their money. With his domicile at Balun village, the suspect used to be affectionately referred to as Mbah Slamet.

The case was beginning to unravel following a report about the disappearance of Paryanto, a 53-year-old man from Sukabumi, West Java. Prior to his disappearance, he had sent a message to his son that he was at Slamet's house. Following up on this information, the police found his grave at a plot of cassava plantation with the corpse showing that he had been fatally poisoned.

KOMPAS/WILIBRORDUS MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO

Joint officers removed 9 of the 12 bodies of the murder victim Slamet Tohari for burial at the Balun Village Public Cemetery, Wanayasa, Banjarnegara, Central Java, Tuesday (4/4/2023).

He was discovered along with the other 11 victims of Slamet's murder. The excavations process found a bottle of mineral water inside each grave.

Based on the suspect's confession and the results of on-site analysis, the police informed that one body was a resident from Gunungkidul. He was male who had been buried in grave number two. “Two Tasikmalaya residents, male and female, were found in grave number three. One grave for two bodies," Luthfi said.

Two bodies of a man and woman from Jakarta were found in grave number four. Two bodies were in grave number five. One was identified as Mulyadi from Palembang. The other was still unknown. The reports only said that Mulyadi had been buried together his girlfriend. The other two victims, who were identified as being a man and a woman from Yogyakarta, were unearthed from grave number one.

Data match-up

Families or relatives’ testimony about their missing members’ physical identities are expected to help make quick and final identification of the corpses. "This is to ensure that the corpses are indeed their family members," Luthfi said.

The police identified one corpse as Paryanto, which his family later took and buried. Two corpses, which were found on Tuesday (4/4/2023), were identified as Irsyad and his wife Wahyutriningsih from Lampung based on the suspect’s confession at the site, before being confirmed by their families.

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Speaking about how the case unfolded, Lutfi said the victims had been promised that their money would be multiplied. For example, a deposit of Rp 50 million (US$3,341), he said, would become Rp 5 billion. “When demanded [the result of] the promises, he [the suspect] became blind-eyed and turned to such a modus operandi [murder]. They [the victims] were invited to his house, then given a [poisonous] drink while being told that if they proved to be strong enough [to resist the drink], the money would multiply. In fact, as soon as they drank, they would begin dying and then buried,” he said.

Banjarnegara Police Criminal Investigation Unit head Adj. Comr. Bintoro Thio said Slamet had ensnarled his victims by luring them into depositing their money and promising them a handsome sum in return. Failing to fulfil his promises, and the victims becoming suspicious about the scam, he murdered them.

WILIBRORDUS MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO

Nine of the 12 victims of the Slamet Tohari murder were buried at the Balun Village Public Cemetery, Wanayasa, Banjarnegara, Central Java, Tuesday (4/4/2023).

Meanwhile, Ahmad Hidayat (28), from Palembang, said he had not made contact with his brother Mulyadi (46), who worked as a housing developer, since October 2021. Mulyadi had sent his location via WhatsApp application, before disappearing a week later.

Hidayat hoped as harsh punishment as possible for the criminal. "If possible, the sentence is life imprisonment or the death penalty because [there are] so many victims [he has inflicted]," ​​said Hidayat while attending the funeral of some of the victims at the public cemetery at Balun village on Tuesday afternoon.

Currently, we focus on identifying the corpses.

Banjarnegara Police chief Adj. Snr. Comr. Hen.dri Yulianto said the two corpses that the suspect admitted to be Irsyad and his wife Wahyutriningsih were later confirmed by their family on Tuesday after the police received reports from Lampung residents regarding the two victims. “Their family sent the pictures of Irsyad and Wahyu. We cross-checked with the suspects’ [confession]. He said he had killed them," he said.

Thus, three of the 12 victims' bodies are already identified. Irsyad’s family was then asked to bring the victim's antemortem data. “If matched, we will hand it over to the family. We can't just hand over the bodies without an antemortem analysis," he said.

According to Hendri, the victims’ belongings, such as identity cards, had been destroyed by the suspect in an attempt to minimize the possibility of his crime being uncovered. "Currently, we focus on identifying the corpses," he said.

This article was translated by Musthofid.