A chilling case of premeditated violence has emerged in Central Java, Indonesia, where a 40-year-old man has been taken into custody on suspicion of killing his mother-in-law by lacing chicken satay with rat poison. According to local law enforcement, the suspect, Purwadi Wahyudi, carried out the planned attack in mid-May after feeling he had been disrespected by 57-year-old victim Aminah.
Authorities detailed the elaborate plot on Wednesday, outlining how Purwadi ordered chicken skewers through a delivery app on May 18, before tampering with the order by dipping the satay into toxic rat poison. To cover his tracks and deflect blame, the suspect created a fake account on the delivery platform, using his sister-in-law Luriyanti Putri’s name and profile photo to frame her for the crime. The poisoned food was then couriered directly to Aminah’s residential home.
The following day, Putri discovered her mother’s body covered in vomit at the property. Even after the victim was laid to rest, lingering doubts about the sudden, unnatural death prompted family members to reach out to local police in Boyolali Regency to launch an investigation.
During initial interviews, Putri told detectives that her mother had mentioned receiving an unexpected satay delivery from an unknown sender the day before her death. Putri, who confirmed she had not ordered any food to her mother’s home, had explicitly warned Aminah against eating the unrequested skewered chicken. Further testimony from a nearby neighbor added another key clue: the neighbor had reported finding multiple dead chickens near Aminah’s chicken coop in the days after the victim’s death.
Acting on the family’s suspicions, investigators obtained permission to exhume Aminah’s body for post-mortem forensic analysis. Testing confirmed the investigators’ worst fears: traces of toxic chemicals were found throughout most of the victim’s major organs, confirming poisoning as the cause of death.
Indonesian national outlet Kompas quoted Boyolali Police Criminal Investigation Unit head Indrawan Wira Saputra confirming that the killing was carried out after careful pre-planning. Multiple inconsistencies in the case also helped crack the plot open: the delivery driver who dropped off the satay told police he had been expecting a woman to place the order, matching the profile details on the fake account, raising early red flags. Additionally, the satay vendor who prepared the original order confirmed that the packaging handed to the driver differed from the packaging the food arrived in when it reached Aminah, further confirming the suspect had tampered with the order after purchasing it.
As of the latest update, Purwadi has been officially named a suspect and remains in pre-trial detention. He has not yet been formally charged with murder. Under Indonesian criminal law, a murder conviction carries a maximum sentence of the death penalty and a minimum prison term of 20 years.