Maria Gabrielle, Jakarta – Police admitted on Monday that they faced challenges in unraveling the circumstances surrounding the deaths of a couple and their two teenage children who jumped from the roof of a Jakarta apartment earlier this month.
While video footage from security cameras confirmed the incident as a mass suicide, authorities struggled to determine the exact motive behind the tragic decision.
The deceased have been identified by their initials as EA, 50, his wife AIL, 52, their 15-year-old daughter JL, and 13-year-old son JWA.
North Jakarta Police Chief Gidion Arif Setyawan said interviews with relatives provided little insight into the family's circumstances due to their introverted nature.
"We have interrogated around a dozen people, but the investigation faced challenges because the family was introverted in front of relatives," Gidion explained.
According to the officer, relatives had minimal communication with the family in the past two years leading up to the incident.
Furthermore, police discovered that both children had not attended school for the past year, although this did not yield any breakthrough in the investigation.
No personal notes or clues were found inside the bag recovered at the scene, and efforts to extract information from their damaged cell phones were unsuccessful.
"The devices were severely damaged, and we couldn't retrieve any data. They had engaged in a few conversations and changed numbers multiple times," Gidion added.
The family did not have any traceable social media accounts, he noted.
The family traveled to the Teluk Intan Tower Apartment in a Grab car on March 9. "They interacted naturally with the Grab driver without displaying any signs of anxiety," Gidion stated.
Before entering the apartment, the wife stopped at a nearby Buddhist temple to pray, while her husband and children waited outside.
Reviewing video footage, authorities observed that the family used an elevator to reach the 21st floor before proceeding to the roof via the stairs.
Inside the elevator, the husband kissed his wife and children on the foreheads, collected their cell phones, and placed them in a bag.
The tragic incident occurred at 4:21 p.m. on that Saturday. The father and daughter had their hands tied to each other with a rope, and the mother was tied to her son when their bodies were discovered.
"We investigated the hotel where they stayed before the incident and found no significant clues," Gidion concluded.