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Kutai Barat Police probe 70-year-old for placing dead wife in water tank
The man claimed that he was fulfilling the final wish of his wife, who was more than 20 years his junior.
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Police are investigating a 70-year-old man who placed his dead wife's body in a water tank at their home in Kutai Barat, West Kalimantan. The man claimed that he was fulfilling her final wishes to remain close to the family. (Shutterstock/andriano.cz)
P
olice are investigating a 70-year-old man who placed the dead body of his 47-year-old wife in the water tank at the couple's home in Kutai Barat, West Kalimantan.
Kutai Barat Police criminal investigation head Adj.Comr. Iswanto said that the man, identified only as NHD, told officers that he placed his late wife's body in the water tank to fulfill her final wish.
"He claimed that before his wife passed away, she told him that she did not want to be away from her family. That's why he decided to put her body in the water tank," Iswanto said on Sunday as quoted in tribunnews.com.
The tribunnews.com report did not mention whether the tank contained water or was empty, nor if it was in use at the household.
Iswanto said that despite the man's claim, however, the police had opened an investigation into the case.
"We have conducted an external examination of the [wife's] body and found no injuries. A forensic team from AW Sjahranie hospital in Samarinda also conducted an autopsy of the body and found no signs of violence," he added.
He explained that the hospital's forensic team had collected samples from the body to determine the woman's cause of death, with the lab results expected next week.
"Besides waiting for the complete results of the autopsy, we are also questioning several witnesses," Iswanto added and that NHD remained free because police had not gathered enough evidence to warrant his arrest.
Police discovered the body of NHD's wife on Friday after reports from local residents concerned about the woman's whereabouts. NHD reportedly told police that his wife had died from liver disease five days before her body was found. (nal)
