The Dark Path of Harnoko Dewantoro: A Tale of Murder Across Continents

A Prominent Beginning

Harnoko "Oki" Dewantoro was born on November 3, 1964, into a respected Indonesian family. His life initially took a promising turn when he and his girlfriend arrived in the United States in the late 1980s on student visas. They settled first in Kansas, where Dewantoro pursued his education, before making brief stops in Pennsylvania and then Los Angeles. The couple resided in various neighborhoods, including North Hills, Northridge, Westwood, and Lake Forest. Dewantoro soon ventured into business, operating a dry-cleaning enterprise.

The Murders Begin

By January 1991, Dewantoro had decided to sell his dry-cleaning business to Suresh Gobid Mirchandini, a 40-year-old Indian businessman, for $100,000. However, Mirchandini abandoned the business just seven months later, still owing Dewantoro thousands of dollars. Fueled by anger and a thirst for vengeance, Dewantoro lured Mirchandini into his car under the guise of resolving their dispute. As they drove along one of Los Angeles' freeways, Dewantoro revealed a revolver and fatally shot Mirchandini. He transported the body to a rented home in Northridge, where he buried it.

The following year, in the spring of 1992, Dewantoro's relationship with his wealthy girlfriend soured. Seeking a new business partner, he convinced a 28-year-old Indonesian student, Gina Sutar Aswan, to come to Los Angeles with a promise of investment. Aswan traveled to the U.S., prepared to invest $200,000. However, upon returning from a Paris vacation on November 3, 1992, she informed Dewantoro that she was withdrawing from the deal. In a fit of rage, Dewantoro lured Aswan to a rented house in Brentwood, where he brutally bludgeoned her to death, then dismembered her, severing her hands, nose, and heart.

The cycle of violence did not end there. A month later, Dewantoro repeated the chilling act on his 26-year-old brother, Eri Triharto Dharmawan, at an apartment in West Los Angeles, bludgeoning him to death.

A Grisly Cover-Up

To conceal his heinous acts, Dewantoro exhumed the bodies of all three victims from their initial burial sites. He relocated them to a storage facility in Sherman Oaks. But the dark secret could not remain hidden. By the following year, he moved the bodies again, this time to a U-Haul storage facility in Northridge.

Discovery and Arrest

Despite fleeing to Jakarta shortly after the murders, Dewantoro maintained payments for the storage unit, using his money and his mother's funds, under the pretense that his brother was utilizing the space. On August 10, 1994, the storage unit was opened, revealing the decomposing bodies. Detective Ted Ball, eager to uncover the identity of the owner, scrutinized the checks sent to the facility, discovering one from Dewantoro's mother and another bearing Dewantoro’s fingerprints. This discovery led to a swift international alert. Authorities in Jakarta apprehended Dewantoro in January 1995.

During his interrogation, Dewantoro confessed to the killings of Aswan and Dharmawan but denied murdering Mirchandini, claiming his brother was responsible for that death. Indonesian authorities, however, did not believe his account. Since there was no extradition treaty with the United States, Dewantoro was charged with all three murders in an Indonesian court. In a bid for justice, detectives Ted Ball and Ed Ramirez, along with 14 others, traveled to Indonesia to testify at the trial.

Trial, Imprisonment, and Release

The case, with its gruesome details, captured attention in both Indonesia and the United States. Indonesian police traveled to Los Angeles to gather evidence, including weapons, bullets, and photographs of the victims’ remains. In 1997, after a protracted trial, Dewantoro was found guilty and sentenced to death by Judge G. K. Sukarata. He was incarcerated at Cipinang Penitentiary Institution, awaiting execution.

In the following years, Dewantoro petitioned twice for clemency but was denied due to the nature of his crimes. Nevertheless, prosecutor Muhammad Yusuf expressed support for any decision made, noting Dewantoro’s status as the last of his family line and his good conduct in prison, where he taught English to inmates.

In October 2019, Dewantoro was interviewed about prison conditions following the escape of another convict. On November 20, 2019, President Joko Widodo granted him clemency, and he was paroled.

A Shadowy Legacy

In November 2011, the murder of a 17-year-old student, Raafi Aga Winasya Benyamin, at a Jakarta café stirred speculation. Journalist Linda Djalil suggested Raafi was Dewantoro’s son, a claim disputed by Dewantoro’s former lawyers, who only knew of a daughter.

Sources

This narrative is based on detailed accounts from the original Wikipedia entry on Harnoko Dewantoro.