Police in Tarakan, North Kalimantan,
Indonesia arrested a 24-year-old woman,
identified by her initials SA, on suspicion
that she killed her newborn and left the
body in a freezer for several months, after
the baby’s remains were found inside a
freezer at the car wash she worked.
“SA confessed that the baby was born in
May,” Tarakan Police Chief Dearystone Supit
said on Thursday.
According to the police, SA claimed to have
given birth to the child in secret, in her
bathroom at home, by herself.
North Kalimantan Police Chief Irjen
Safaruddin said the motive behind SA’s
actions was that the legal status of her
marriage was not clear.
“The motive is she didn’t want (the baby),
she was ashamed because she had already
had her first child who was born without
any status, no birth certificate. That was her
motive at that time,” East Kalimantan Police
Chief Irjen Safaruddin told
Detik on Thursday.
The suspect was the fourth wife of the
owner of the car wash where she worked, a
man identified by police as DO.
Polygamy is rare but allowed in Indonesia.
However, the stringent requirements for
legal polygamy mean such unions are often
done unofficially.
According to the police’s account of her
testimony, SA said the baby was stillborn. In
a panic, she wrapped its body up in black
plastic and placed it in the freezer in her
home. Police said she was afraid it would be
found there and so two days later she
moved it to the freezer located at her
husband DO’s car wash, where she worked
as a cashier. It was only discovered this
week by another employee at the car wash.
Authorities have conducted an autopsy on
the body but have not yet revealed if there is
any evidence that the baby might have been
alive when it was born.
