Indonesia | Man accused of killing mother-in-law with poison-laced satay

A man in Indonesia has been arrested for allegedly murdering his mother-in-law using satay laced with rat poison.

Police say Purwadi Wahyudi ordered chicken skewers on 18 May, dipped them in toxic chemicals, then couriered them to the alleged victim's house because he felt disrespected by her.

He tried to frame his sister-in-law, who discovered the 57-year-old woman's body, covered in vomit, at her home in Central Java the next day, detectives added.

Purwadi, 40, has been made a suspect and detained but has not been formally charged with murder, which in Indonesia attracts the death penalty or at least 20 years in prison.

Police say the family contacted them after the woman—identified only as Aminah—was buried, suspicious that she had not died of natural causes.

The woman's youngest daughter, Luriyanti Putri, told investigators the alleged victim had reported receiving a delivery of chicken satay from an unknown person the day before her body was discovered. Putri said it wasn't from her and told her mother not to eat the food.

Aminah's neighbour also reported seeing dead chickens near her coop.

Her body was exhumed, and forensic testing found signs of poisoning in most of her major organs, as well as traces of toxic chemicals.

The head of the Boyolali police's criminal investigation unit, Indrawan Wira Saputra, added that the killing was carefully planned, according to Indonesian media outlet Kompas.

Purwadi had pretended to be Putri on a delivery app, using her name and photo as the account details.

The delivery driver raised suspicions about this—expecting a woman—and the person who sold Purwadi the satay says the food was in different packaging by the time it was delivered to Aminah.

Source: BBC News, Staff, June 10, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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