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BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police have arrested a man suspected of robbing and murdering an elderly Japanese couple earlier this month on the resort island of Bali.
Denpasar police chief Hadi Purnomo said the suspect, 25-year-old Balinese man Putu Astawa, was arrested early Monday in Denpasar, Bali's capital.
The burned bodies of Hiroko Matsuba, 73, and her husband Norio Matsuba, 76, were discovered Sept. 4 by their adopted son in their rented house in southern Kuta, where they had lived for two years.
Purnomo said the man attacked the couple using a knife from their house after they resisted his attempt to rob them of about $99, and then burned their bodies to destroy evidence of his crime.
Describing an apparently frenzied attack, Purnomo said the women had wounds to her neck and stomach and her husband to his back and throat.
Purnomo said after killing the couple, Astawa drove to Tanah Lot, a popular tourist spot on Bali's coastline about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Denpasar, and later returned with fuel to burn their bodies.
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