Carpenter charged with murder of former colleague

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Wednesday charged a 24-year-old carpenter with premeditated murder in connection with the disappearance and death of his former work colleague, official sources said.

The 24-year-old woman was reported missing by her family on October 21, according to a Public Security Department (PSD) statement.

Investigators checked the woman’s cellular phone records and concluded that the suspect was the last person to have contacted her, a senior judicial source said.

Police summoned the suspect, who claimed that the woman told him she was going to Aqaba, the source told The Jordan Times.

“Investigators did not believe him and kept summoning him for questioning until he finally cracked on Wednesday and confessed to killing her,” the source added.

The suspect led investigators and coroners to a deserted farm south of Amman where he allegedly “strangled the woman with his hands and struck her with an iron bar on the neck”, according to the source.

In his initial confession to police, the suspect claimed he had a personal dispute with the victim and “decided to lure her to a secluded farm that he used for his work to kill her”, a second source said.

The suspect told investigators he met the victim at a company where he was formerly employed and they became friends, according to the second source.

The victim was not subjected to any form of sexual assault, according to a government autopsy conducted on the body on Wednesday, the second source added.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Mohammad Daradkeh ordered the suspect detained at the Jweideh Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre pending further investigation, the judicial source said.