INTRODUCTION
Serial Killing/ serial murder is a spine-chilling movement when we heard about. History got spiced up with these horrible stories with different reasons like to achieve greatness at any cost or with psychological disorders, someone misusing their power for personal use.
Ahmad Suradji@ Nasib Kelewang@ Datuk was also one of the individuals who came on this list. He was a cattle breeder made out into a serial killer as well as a sorcerer by practicing black magic. He killed more than forty women ranging in age from 17 to 40 in the late 1980s and 1990s. His 3 wives also supported him. He continued his killing spree for 11 years before he was eventually arrested in 1997 after bodies were discovered near his home on the outskirts of Medan.
BACKGROUND
The background was simple, Suradji was born to a self-proclaimed “sorcerer” in Indonesia. He used to watch daily his father doing black magic and get fascinated by his name, and praise. He was neglected by his parents by leaving him alone, didn’t perform good in school & began criminal life.
At the age of 19, he experienced prison life for 10 years for some public crimes & was released after 2 years.
According to a documentary, after his release he was depressed and wanted to do something to get fame and close his bad reputation, so he decided to be like his father. Then people started praising him, started believing that he can solve any problem and regarded him as “ Datuk Maringgi”.
NIGHTMARE
During the investigation, he told police that he had a dream in 1986 during which his father’s ghost directed him to drink the secretion of saliva from seventy dead young girls, so he may become a mystic therapist. Suradji thought that it’d take him too long to encounter seventy dead girls severally and then he took up the initiative to kill.
CRIMES
Everything was going well and according to his plan until the dead body of a Kewala Devi, 21 years old was found in a sugarcane field.
The last victim was a 21-year-old lady named Sri Kemala Dewi, who had visited his home in a rickshaw and had advised the rickshaw puller to maintain this visit secret.
After a few days, the naked and decomposed body of Kemala was found in a sugarcane field by a man, who dug it up with a group of people and informed the police. The auto-rickshaw puller Andreas identified her and informed the police about her last visit to Ahmad. However, he denied any connection to the killing.
By the police investigation, the police found Dewi’s handbag, dress, and bracelet in Suradji’s home which eventually led to his arrest. He accepted his crimes during the interrogation.
He agreed to all his crimes during the interrogation that he had killed up to 42 young women in the same pattern.
The excavation was carried out in the field to find bodies. Some of those bodies were so badly decomposed to identify.
Ahmad Suradji received the death sentence and it was done on 10 July 2008.
EVENTS OF THE CRIME
The below-mentioned dates explain about the timeline and events of the crime:
| Timeline | Events |
| Jan 10, 1949 | Born in Medan, Indonesia |
| Jan 10, 1979 (Age 30) |
30th Birthday |
| 1986 (Age 36/37) |
Ahmad Suradji started his serial killing spree. |
| Jan 10, 1989 (Age 40) |
40th Birthday |
| 1997 (Age 47/48) |
Ahmad Suradji ended his serial killing spree. |
| May 02, 1997 (Age 48) |
Ahmad Suradji was arrested. |
| Apr 27, 1998 (Age 49) |
Ahmad Suradji was convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad at a prison in Medan, Indonesia. |
| Jan 10, 1999 (Age 50) |
50th Birthday |
| Jul 10, 2008 (Age 59) |
Ahmad Suradjiwas executed. cause of death: capital punishment, executed by firing squad at a prison in Medan, Indonesia. |
(Source:https://killer.cloud/serial-killers/show/10/ahmad-suradji)
MODUS OPERANDI
As a wizard, some girls mainly prostitutes used to come to him for a religious recommendation, marriage affairs, creating themselves additional stunning to attract more people towards them. He would take them into a sugarcane field and bury them up to their waist, claiming it had been a part of the ritual. He would then strangle them with the cable wire or any things till they were dead and proceed to drink their secretion of saliva. After, he would strip the garments from their bodies to accelerate decomposition and bury them back to the bottom with their heads facing toward his house believing that it would increase his powers.
FORENSIC INVESTIGATION
The forensic expert, Alfred Satyo who worked on the case said that following the discovery of Dewi’s body and the statement by the rickshaw man Andreas, he interrogated for 4 days, during which he admitted that he had murdered a total of 42 women and buried all of them in the same sugarcane field.
He says “Dewi’s body was easily identifiable as it was entirely fresh. When the military and the police worked together to exhumate all the other bodies four other bodies were also identified shortly after their families came forward. The other four bodies which were found, could not be identified and cremated without anyone claiming them. The rest of the bodies were impossible as those were reduced to a pile of skulls & bones, also the possibility that more than 42 bodies were there,” he said. The expert also added that because of over decomposition it was difficult to identify the sexual assault.
The forensic expert also revealed that Suradji had claimed none of his murders were ever sexually motivated or hurt. “He simply said it was also a way for him to make money as he could rob them without getting caught,” said Satyo.
CRIME SCENE
It was an outdoor crime scene which was a sugarcane field, near Suradji home. He used to bury the women’s dead bodies in the field up to their waist. There were around 42 dead bodies buried by him in the same field.
JUDGEMENT
He was then sentenced to death by firing squad and executed in 2008. His 3 wives were conjointly found guilty and one amongst them was sentenced to death, though’ her penalization was later modified to imprisonment. He had committed the murders as a part of a black magic ritual that he believed would increase his wizard powers.
CONCLUSION
Nobody is born a criminal but the conditions around them make them criminals. In this case, also his situation made him criminal-minded and finally ended his life.
Suradji expressed the subsequent to the police: “My father didn’t specifically advise me to kill people. Therefore I used to be thinking, it’d take ages if I actually have to attend to induce seventy girls. as a result of I used to be making an attempt to induce thereto as quick as doable I took my own initiative to kill”.
By these lines, we can understand that the situations around him, some superstitious beliefs turned them into psychopaths.
These psychopaths live like traditional folks within the society… however they have very Dark Secrets… Be Careful!
REFERENCE
- https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/ahmad-suradji-41485.php
- https://a-study-in-crime.tumblr.com/post/190195556542/ahmad-suradji-the-sorcerer-that-killed-his
- https://a-study-in-crime.tumblr.com/post/190195556542/ahmad-suradji-the-sorcerer-that-killed-his
- https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Ahmad_Suradji
- https://bloggmylyf.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/ahmad-suradji-the-sorcerer/
Author
Yamini Badigenchala
Intern, Dept. of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation
Legal Desire Media & Insights