Jakarta: Abducted Jefri Ardiansyah (9)

Abducted boy dies, police on alert for child kidnapping cases

Wed, 06/09/2010

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta



Police on Monday night found the body of 9-year-old Jefri Ardiansyah on an empty plot of land in a residential complex close to his house in Kembangan, West Jakarta, after a 10-day search in the area.

Jefri was kidnapped last month when he was playing in front of his house.

The kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rp 35 million (US$3,800) and threatened to murder the boy if their demands were not met.

The threat was delivered via text message.

The text outlined directions for the parents to deliver the money to Serpong bus terminal in Tangerang, Banten, on Tuesday night, "otherwise the parents won't see their son anymore".

Suryani, Jefri's mother, said she never thought the kidnappers would be serious about carrying out their threat.

"How could they do that?" she said Tuesday at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Central Jakarta, where Jefri's body is being kept for forensic examination to determine how and when he died.

Following the finding of Jefri's body, West Jakarta Police announced Tuesday they had arrested two suspects for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and were searching for two more suspects.

West Jakarta Police chief detective Comr. Tony Surya Putra said the police investigation had so far found that the motive for the kidnapping was purely economic.

"The arrested suspects said they killed the child because his parent did not respond to their request to pay the ransom," he said.

The two arrested suspects were identified as Umar, 25, and Idris, 27, Tony said.

He added that Umar and Idris were known to Jefri and his family as the two of them worked close to Jefri's house in Kembangan.

Idris worked as a gravedigger at the nearby Joglo cemetery while Umar worked for one of Jefri's neighbors. "That explains why it was easy for them to ask Jefri to go with them," he said.

Data from the National Commission on Child Protection found that 67 children had been abducted between January and May this year, with 40 cases still unresolved.

Earlier this year, a new-born baby boy was abducted from his mother at the Kembangan community health center.

Murtanti, the baby's mother, said a women with a scarf came and took her baby, saying she was taking him to be immunized.

The woman and her baby, however, never came back.

The commission's secretary-general, Arist Merdeka Sirait, however, dispelled public myths that only the children of wealthy city dwellers were at risk of being kidnapped.

"Kidnappers will choose their victims randomly, no matter what their background," he told The Jakarta Post.

Earlier this month, former city police chief Insp. Gen. Wahyono urged parents to watch their children more carefully when they were at home.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/06/09/abducted-boy-dies-police-alert-child-kidnapping-cases.html

http://www.beritajakarta.com/2008/en/newsview.aspx?idwil=0&id=15278

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/abducted-boy-found-dead-on-a-field-near-his-house/379384