Search and rescue workers exhume bodies allegedly belonging to victims of Slamet Tohari on the edge of a forest in Wanayasa district, Banjarnegara regency, Central Java, on April 3, 2023. - JP/Central Java Police Public Relations
JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): Banjarnegara Police in Central Java have arrested 45-year-old Slamet Tohari who has allegedly killed at least 12 people he had promised to multiply money for.
In the past week, police have exhumed the remains of his victims, buried in the woods outside his residence in Balun, Wanayasa district.
The arrest was made following a report from the family of his last victim, a 53-year-old man Paryanto who hailed from Sukabumi in West Java.
Banjarnegara Police chief Adj Sr Comr Hendri Yulianto said that Paryanto asked Slamet to multiply his money.
“The suspect claimed to be a shaman able to multiply the victim’s Rp 70 million [US$4,690] into Rp 5 billion,” Hendri told a press conference on Monday (April 3).
Paryanto came to Slamet in July and had given him a total of Rp 70 million. After months of waiting with no result, Paryanto asked Slamet to return his money. Slamet agreed and set up a meeting at a lodging in Banjarnegara on March 23.
Immediately after meeting with Slamet, the victim texted his family, giving Slamet’s address and saying that if they did not hear from him in three days they should come to Slamet’s house with the police.
On March 27, the family made a report to the local police and found that Paryanto was already dead and his remains had been buried near a path heading toward Wanayasa woods.
Police chief Hendri said Slamet admitted to having murdered Paryanto and the other victims by giving them drinks tainted with potassium cyanide.
Following questioning, police exhumed 11 more bodies thought to be of Slamet’s victims around the area, comprising six men and five women, with five of the burial plots containing the remains of a man and a woman each.
Slamet told the police the victims came from Jakarta, Palembang in South Sumatra, and Tasikmalaya in West Java.
Hendri said Slamet had first put up advertisements on Facebook claiming to be able to multiply money a year ago with the help of another person, identified as DS who has also been named a suspect.
“Paryanto found the ad and was interested in meeting Slamet,” the police said.
Slamet is facing a charge of premeditated murder, which carries a maximum penalty of death or a lifetime in prison.
The remains of the other 11 bodies discovered are currently under examination by the Central Java Disaster Victim Identification Unit.
“Anyone who is missing a relative should make a report to the Banjarnegara Police or their nearest police office. We will help the identification process,” Central Java Police spokesperson Sr. Come. Iqbal Alqudussy said.
In January, Jakarta Police detained three men suspected of killing at least nine people after promising their supernatural abilities or wealth.
Wowon Erawan, Solihin and M. Dede Solihidin murdered their victims, including by poisoning them.
Police said that the three suspects would persuade victims to hand over cash or belongings before killing them.
One of the most infamous killings by a shaman was the crime of Ahmad Suradji, known by the public as Dukun AS, who was sentenced to death in 1998 for killing 42 women in Lubuk Pakam, North Sumatra.
Suradji was executed in 2008. Suradji's criminal exploits have become infamous for their brutality.
He told police he buried his victims up to the waist and then strangled them before reburying their bodies with their heads pointing toward his house. He confessed he did so in an attempt to gain magical powers.
He began his killing spree after he had a vision of his late father in a dream, who instructed him to murder 70 women as part of a black magic ritual.
Police found the victims' bodies buried in a sugar cane field near his house.
His first wife, Tumini, who is the eldest of three sisters all married to Suradji, was also sentenced to death for assisting with the murder but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
