The Media Hotel and Towers in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta, was in the spotlight last week -- for all the wrong reasons.

Last Thursday, a fire broke out in a change room in the hotel’s basement killing a security guard, while a woman was found dead in her car in the underground parking lot.

The dead woman, identified as IC, was found by her husband in her unlocked car after he became worried that she had not arrived home at her usual time. Some of her belongings were reported to be missing.  

After IC’s body was found, the security officer, who was identified as DHP, was found dead.

The police said the two incidents were related.

“Based on our investigation, we believe that the security guard killed IC. He then set himself on fire,” Central Jakarta deputy police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Arie Ardian said on Thursday as reported by kompas.com.

Arie added that DHP had strangled IC with a rope, saying the motive for the murder was theft.

He said DHP was one of the hotel’s workers who were questioned by the police after the murder.

“When we questioned him, he was drenched in sweat. We wondered what was going on with this guy,” Sawah Besar Police’s criminal investigation unit head, Adj. Comr. Ade Chandra, told kompas.com.

After he was questioned, DHP reportedly sent a text message to his wife admitting that he had murdered IC and that he was going to kill himself.

“Instead of you being ashamed of having a husband who is a murderer, it is better for me to die. Please take care of mother and our child. Bury me near my father’s tomb,” the text message said.

Nineteen fire trucks were deployed to the scene by the Central Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency to put out the fire. Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control at around 11:10 p.m.

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