Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (SAR, or 'Basarnas' in Indonesian) and the police on Thursday 1 September said they had found the remains of four murder victims.

The killings are alleged to have been carried out by six Indonesian soldiers and four civilians.

The remains were found in four sacks dumped in the Kampung Pigapu river in Iwaka District, Mimika Regency, Papua.

Mimika Police Chief and Adjunct Senior Commissioner of Police, I Gede Putra, said that body parts from the four victims killed in Timika had been found, but that they were still searching for other body parts.

"That's just a body, well, there are four (remains of bodies) that we found, while the head and body parts from the knees to the feet have yet to be found. All the victims who died have been evacuated to the mortuary of the Mimika Hospital for an autopsy, where the team from the Papua Police Forensic Laboratory Centre will carry out the autopsy and identify the bodies,” he said.

I Gede Putra added that they were also still searching for the victims' belongings.

Meanwhile, a forensic doctor from the Papua Regional Police's Laboratory for Research, Dr Jimmi Viktor Sembai, said that his team had examined the remains of four bodies.

"This afternoon we examined four pieces of the victim's body from the body bag that was handed over by the SAR Team, which consisted of four pieces of the victims' bodies and two of their thighs," he said.

According to Dr Jimmi, the purpose of the examination was to carry out identification and autopsies as well as DNA tests.

Autopsy activities and DNA testing were carried out on Thursday afternoon and evening, local time.

Dr Jimmi said the identification process was made difficult by the mutilated state of the bodies, so they will rely on DNA results from a lab in Jakarta to definitively confirm the victim's identities.

He said that process could take around a week.

As sometimes happens in Indonesian criminal cases, police paraded alleged suspects with covered faces in front of the media, along with weapons and other items they have seized.

The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency and the Police on Thursday (1/9/2022) managed to find four bodies of victims of premeditated murder and mutilation carried out by six Indonesian National Army Soldiers and four civilians.

The four pieces of human bodies were found filled in four sacks where the victims of this mutilation after being killed by the perpetrators were then dumped in the Kampung Pigapu River, Iwaka District, Mimika Regency, Papua.
Previously, the team from the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency and the police managed to find two human bodies that were victims of heinous murders.

The Mimika Police Chief, Adjunct Senior Commissioner of Police, I Gede Putra said that the four victims who were killed by six TNI soldiers and three civilians in Timika had all been found, but only the remains of the victims were found. As for the head, feet, hands, the Basarnas Team is still looking for it.

"That's just a body, well, there are four (human bodies) that we found, while for the head, then the pieces from the knees to the feet down until now have not been found. All the victims who died have been evacuated to the body room of the Mimika Hospital for an autopsy. Where the team from the Papua Police Forensic Laboratory Center will carry out the autopsy and identify the bodies,” said I Gede Putra.

I Gede Putra added that the other victims' belongings, which were reported missing, were still being searched.

"The victims' belongings are still being searched," said I Gede Putra.


Meanwhile, the Forensic Doctor from the Papua Regional Police's Laboratory for Research, Doctor Jimmi Viktor Sembai said that his party had examined four bodies, of which four pieces of human bodies were examined, consisting of the victim's body and two parts of the victim's thigh.

"This afternoon we examined four pieces of the victim's body from the body bag that was handed over by the SAR Team, which consisted of four pieces of the victim's body or the victim's body and two of the victim's thighs," explained Doctor Jimmy Victor Sembai.

According to Doctor Jimmi, the purpose of this examination is to carry out identification and autopsies as well as DNA tests to find out or match the family data of the victims.

"The purpose of the autopsy is to identify the pieces of the bodies that have been found in the hope that they can be matched or there is a correlation between the bodies found and the families of the victims who lost their family members," said Doctor Jimmi.

Autopsy activities and DNA testing began on Thursday from 12.00 noon to 19.00 in the evening local time.

In the identification process, according to Doctor Jimmi, the four bodies of the victims, the Police Medical and the Papuan Regional Police's Puslabfor Team experienced difficulties because the four body parts of the mutilated victims on average were no longer intact or without human heads, so to distinguish each part of the mutilated victim's body, his party took DNA samples. and will be matched with the DNA of the families of the victims who feel they have lost their families.

After autopsies and taking the DNA of the four mutilated victims, the results will be sent to Jakarta for examination in the laboratory to find out the results of the four mutilated bodies and the DNA of the victims' families and the estimated timeframe for the next one week.