Photo: Woman arrested for allegedly killing her newborn, keeping her body in freezer for 3 months

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.