Police in Banjarnegara, Central Java, Indonesia, arrested 45-year-old
Slamet Tohari
, who
murdered at least 12 people
to whom he had promised to multiply money in his role as Shaman.
In the last week, the police have exhumed the remains of his victims, buried in the forest in front of his residence in the Wanayasa district.
The arrest occurred following a complaint from the family of his last victim, a 53-year-old man named Paryanto, whom he led to his death.
Indonesian shaman.
The moment of the arrest of Slamet Tohari.
The shaman who deceived his followers in Indonesia
The arrest came this week following a complaint filed by the son of his most recent victim, Paryanto, who told police that the shaman's house in Banjarnegara, Central Java, was the last known location of his father.
"Paryanto's family lost contact with him at the end of March," the BBC reported.
The alleged Shaman Tohari, accused of premeditated murder,
promised people he could multiply money by magic, and when customers asked him to pay it back, he poisoned them
, according to police.
The victim who reported the scam, Paryanto,
informed his son of his whereabouts via WhatsApp message
and had asked him to notify the police if he did not return by March 26.
Indonesian shaman with Paryanto, his victim.
The conclusions of a case of faith that ended in fraud and death
Following the complaint filed, authorities
went to Tohari's residence in Desa Balun village, Wanayasa district,
where they found shallow graves nearby, some with two or three victims buried together and next to each other. with a bottle of mineral water at each grave, the
BBC
reported .
The victims were between 25 and 50 years old, had been buried for at least six months, and the corpses showed no signs of violence
.
Police believe Tohari has been killing people since 2020
, the British media reported.
Authorities have also detained an accomplice promoting money multiplication services on social media, however Tohari further said he was largely acting alone.
He posed as a shaman, as his grandfather Mbah Slamet had been, and
promised to multiply from 70 million rupees ($4,683) to 5,000 million rupees ($334,706)
, according to police.
Later,
he would lure his victims into his home for a daytime ritual and then give them drinks laced with potassium cyanide and a sedative.
The alleged shaman had also been jailed some four years ago for counterfeiting offenses and could face the death penalty for his current charges.
Yanomami shaman in a ritual, Amazonas State, Brazil, 2014.
What is a Shaman
Shamanism uses methods that populations developed hundreds of years ago and that are transmitted from generation to generation.
Therefore, they fulfill a role of ancestral wisdom and intermediaries between the spiritual world and the natural world.
Some of its most outstanding functions are emotional support, clairvoyance or healing the body through rituals and energy techniques to restore spiritual harmony.
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