JOHOR BAHRU, Feb 4 — Police believe that the two dead adult victims were friends who were killed together before being set ablaze with four others in a house in Kangkar Pulai here early last month.
Johor police chief Datuk Ab Rahaman Arsad said initial investigations revealed that the two adult victims — a 35-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man — were known to each other.
“Police can only confirm that the relationship between the two victims was that of friends.
“I can’t reveal further details right now because the case is still in court. Let the motive be revealed in court later during the trial,” he told reporters when met after a handover ceremony for the new Johor deputy police chief at the state police contingent headquarters here today.
Ab Rahaman was responding to queries on the relationship between the two adult victims whose skeletal remains were found together with a teenage girl, two sisters and a young boy.
He said police have not made any new arrests in connection with the case.
“The decision was to arrest and charge the two male suspects,” he said.
On the progress of the case, Ab Rahaman said investigators will be wrapping up several important aspects of the case to assist in a thorough investigation.
He said this includes the chemical, medical and forensic reports.
“The full forensic report, which is expected to be important evidence in the court’s proceedings, is expected to be finalised within the next one to two months,” he said.
Earlier two brothers, R. Utes, 36, and R. Arasan, 32, were charged in the Magistrates’ Court here with the murder of a man who was among six charred skeletal remains found inside a burnt house in Kangkar Pulai earlier this year.
Yesterday, it was reported that six people, including three children and a teenager, were found murdered, with their skeletal remains discovered in a burnt-down house in Kangkar Pulai, near here.
A police report was lodged by the adult female victim’s 48-year-old husband on January 8 after he came across human skeletal remains at a house in an oil palm plantation. The husband was initially searching for his wife and children, who had been reported missing.
Police later identified the victims as aged two, five, nine, 17, 29 and 35. Among the children were one boy and three girls.
Following that, four suspects — three men and a woman aged between 19 and 35 — were arrested in connection with the case on January 21 at several locations around Iskandar Puteri.
However, police decided to only charge the two brothers. A man and woman were later released on police bail and are expected to testify as prosecution witnesses.
