‘DNA sample from stolen car in Mafraq solves Ruseifa murder case’

AMMAN — Police on Tuesday said they have solved a murder and robbery that took place in Ruseifa in April using DNA taken from a stolen car in Mafraq last week.

On April 26, a 50-year-old man was found murdered with multiple stab wounds in a scrap shop he owned in Ruseifa, some 12km east of Amman in Zarqa Governorate, according to a Public Security Department (PSD) statement that was made available to the press on Tuesday.

The perpetrator remained unidentified until May 6 when the Criminal Investigation Department received information that three men were attempting to sell a stolen vehicle in the town of Mafraq, some 80km northeast of Amman, the PSD statement said.

“The three men were arrested and when investigators placed the DNA samples and fingerprints of the three men in their database they got a match,” a senior judicial source said.

A DNA sample from one of the suspects matched samples found at the Ruseifa crime scene. 

Upon questioning, the suspect “reportedly confessed to robbing and murdering the victim”, the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Afifi Khawaldeh on Monday charged the 20-year-old suspect with premeditated murder to facilitate a robbery, the source said.

He added that the suspect “knew that the victim would often have cash on him and decided to rob him”.

“The suspect went to the scrap shop and attempted to rob the victim, who resisted so he stabbed him to death with a switchblade, stole JD300 and fled,” the judicial source noted.

Khawaldeh issued orders for the suspect to be detained at a correctional and rehabilitation centre pending further investigation into the incident.