Bandung. In an unexpected development, the West Java Police announced on Sunday that there are no more suspects at large in the 2016 murders of Vina Dewi Arsita and her boyfriend, Muhammad Rizky Rudiana.

This surprise announcement came after the arrest of the ninth suspect, identified as Pegi Setiawan, despite the police’s own wanted list indicating two other suspects had been on the run for nearly eight years.

Following the initial investigation, police said that Vina and Rizky were murdered by 11 members of a motorcycle gang, and that Vina was raped before her death on August 27, 2016, in the West Java town of Cirebon. Their bodies were found on an elevated road in the town the following day.

Eight other suspects have been convicted, with seven receiving life imprisonment. Pegi, the suspected mastermind of the murders, was arrested on Wednesday.

West Java Police’s Criminal Investigation Director, Chief Commissioner Surawan, blamed internet users for the confusion.

"We had only one fugitive, who has now been arrested. We strictly follow the facts based on our investigation, not public assumptions circulating on social media or other platforms," Surawan said at a news conference at the provincial police headquarters in Bandung.

During the conference, the latest suspect was presented and defiantly slammed the police accusations as slander, claiming he didn’t commit the murders or rape. Officers immediately gagged Pegi and escorted him to his cell.

"PS is the suspected mastermind in this crime, and we don’t take his statements seriously because we have already gathered testimonies from key witnesses," Surawan said, referring to Pegi.

He added that investigators have verified the registration document of the motorcycle used in the attack and confirmed it belonged to Pegi.

"If Pegi accuses the police of mistreatment, he can file a pre-trial motion," Surawan said.

Marliyana, the elder sister of Vina, expressed mixed feelings upon learning the news in Cirebon. She said she is happy about the arrest of another suspect after nearly eight years but questioned the sudden retraction regarding the existence of two other fugitives.

“We followed the case solely from police depositions, which mentioned other fugitives apart from Pegi. The family learned at that time there were three suspects still at large, but now police say there was only one fugitive who has been arrested,” Marliyana said.

“My lawyer and I will raise this question with the West Java Police,” she added.

The murder case resurfaced after all eight convicts recently claimed they made confessions under duress, citing torture by officers at the Cirebon Metropolitan Police during the investigation. They also claimed that they didn’t know the victims, Pegi, or the two fugitives, retracting their previous police depositions.

Their attorney suspected that Vina and Rizky could have died from a fatal motorcycle accident based on the initial investigation by the traffic police at the scene.

Lawyer Jogie Nainggolan said police had ignored forensic evidence by refusing to examine footage from a security camera at the scene and refraining from conducting DNA tests on his clients to verify the rape claim.

Criminologist Adrianus Meliala criticized the police for “sloppy work” that led to the protracted investigation and caused public confusion.

“We must admit that police did sloppy work during the initial phase of the investigation,” he told BTV network.

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