Man allegedly kills wife, puts body in cement-filled barrel

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Wednesday charged a 34-year-old mechanic with manslaughter for reportedly murdering his wife and placing the body in a barrel and pouring cement over it in Amman almost 10 days ago, official sources said.

The 27-year-old victim was allegedly strangled to death by her husband at their home in Abu Alanda neighbourhood, a senior official source said.

The suspect then informed her family that his wife left the house to an unknown destination and reported her missing to police a few days later, the source told The Jordan Times.

However, one of the victim’s two daughters “found a mobile phone chip that belonged to her mother a few days ago and notified her grandparents”, according to the official source.

“The victim’s parents notified the police who summoned the suspect for a second investigations,” the official source said.

Upon cross-examining the husband and confronting him with the mobile chip and the fact that his wife would not leave her home without her mobile phone, the official source maintained, he reportedly confessed to chocking his wife with his hands following “a domestic dispute”.

“The suspect claimed that his wife owned a hair salon and that they had an argument regarding money and he ended up killing her,” according to the official source.

In his initial confession to the authorities, the suspect said that he wrapped the body in a bed cover and took it  to the Qweismeh area at night, where he had a shop, a second source told The Jordan Times.

The suspect informed investigators that he allegedly placed his wife’s body in a barrel, poured cement over her and left, the second source added.

“The suspect ushered the investigators to the barrel and it took them over one hour to break the cement and find the body,” the second official source said

Criminal Court Prosecutor Hussien Khalileh attended and supervised the autopsy at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (NIFM), according to the second source said.

“The autopsy revealed that the victim died of suffocation and that she has been dead for around 10 days,” the second source added. 

Khalileh ordered that blood and tissue samples taken from the victim to be sent to the criminal lab for further analysis, according to the second source.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Jihad Dureidi questioned the suspect and ordered him detained for 15 days after hearing his initial confession.

“Dureidi is excepted to summon the suspect’s family members in the coming days to question them about the incident,” the second source added.

The victim is survived by two daughters aged 13 and 12 and a five-year-old son.