Three named as suspects in woman's murder

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 06/10/2008 10:20 AM | City

Police have named three suspects in the murder of Siti Aisyah Susan Seh, whose body was found one year after the crime took place.

South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Chairul Anwar said the three suspects were Susan's husband Hermanto Seh, Hermanto's new wife and gardener Paiman.

The murder was uncovered when the police received a tip from a neighbor that there was a dead body buried inside a house in the Tanjung Mas Raya housing complex, South Jakarta.

Autopsy results showed that Susan, who was from Taiwan, was strangled with a shoelace and then buried on March 1, 2007, in her home. After an investigation, police on Sunday named Hermanto and Paiman as suspects. Hermanto and Paiman are now in custody at South Jakarta Police headquarters.

Chairul said that during questioning Hermanto said that he had a new wife in Bekasi and that the new wife had a house and a luxury car.

"We suspect that the new wife was involved in this murder. We're tracking down Hermanto's new wife in Bekasi," he said.

Police are also looking for two men in Brebes, Central Java, who may have dug Susan's grave. Paiman told police that he asked two Brebes-based laborers to dig a hole at the house for a water reservoir.

"We want to find out if the two laborers were asked to make a water reservoir or to dig a grave," Chairul said.

South Jakarta detective chief Comr. Iwan Kurniawan said even though Hermanto had yet to admit his role in the crime, investigation showed several oddities in his behavior, such as a change in home phone number and his identity card.

Susan's family in Taiwan suspected she had gone missing after they were unable to contact her for the past year. Hermanto, however, told his neighbors his wife was in Taiwan.

Susan ran a garment business and had two houses in the complex, one of which served as her office.

Police also found that Hermanto transferred Susan's money to his personal bank account and that he changed the ownership of two houses, an apartment and two cars a few days after the murder.

The police alleged money was the motive for the murder as they found that Susan had a US$50,000 bank deposit and Rp 2 billion (US$215,054) in a bank account.