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woman who was found dead in a parked car at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, may have been strangled to death by a '€œclose friend'€ before entering the parking lot.

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Police chief Sr. Comr. CH Pattopoi told reporters on Monday that 31-year-old suspect Jean Alter Huliselan had strangled Sri Wahyuni, a 42-year-old mother of two, in her Honda Freed car parked at Taman Gajah in Fatmawati, South Jakarta, last Saturday morning after an argument.

'€œThe suspect and victim had just left a nightclub in West Jakarta with their two other friends. After the friends left, Sri Wahyuni and Jean got into an argument. She was jealous of another girl Jean had been with at the club. She slapped him twice and he retaliated by strangling her with his left hand,'€ he said, adding that the incident may have been because of the influence of alcohol.

Pattopoi said Jean first attempted to strangle Sri Wahyuni with one hand while driving, then parked his car at Taman Gajah and strangled her until she vomited blood and died.

He then went to the airport where the body was found by an airport security officer on Wednesday. The body had started to decompose.

When Jean was arrested on Friday, he confessed to having killed Sri Wahyuni at the airport before he bought a ticket to his hometown of Nabire, Papua, where his wife lived.

However, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Police chief detective Comr. Aszhari Kurniawan said that the original chronology did not make sense because of the time span of events.

'€œHis confession just did not add up to what our investigators had found. Plus, it would have been impossible for all of it to have happened in just a matter of hours between the time the car entered the airport'€™s parking lot to when Jean'€™s flight took off,'€ he told The Jakarta Post.

After Jean killed Sri Wahyuni, Aszhari said, he then drove, with her body still in the car, back to his boardinghouse in Kemang, South Jakarta, to change out of his blood-stained clothes.

Jean then took the toll road from Cilandak to the airport. Pattopoi said Jean stopped briefly on the TB Simatupang section of the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR) to throw away his sullied clothes, but the police had found them during the investigation.

Pattopoi said Jean could face a maximum 15-year prison sentence if he was found guilty of murder under Article 338 of the Criminal Code.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto told reporters that Jean might also be charged with violent robbery under Article 365 of the code, as he had taken Sri Wahyuni'€™s belongings with him to Nabire after killing her.

'€œFrom what the suspect'€™s wife told the Nabire Police, Jean took the victim'€™s pendant, handphone and Rp 200,000 (US$16.47) from her wallet,'€ he said.