In Indonesia, sate ayam is a given. Grilled chicken skewers, peanut sauce, street vendors present in every sub-district of Java. Order from an app, the meal arrives at your door in minutes. That is exactly what PW, 40, did on May 18, 2026.
He had first mixed rat poison into the skewers.
FATAL DELIVERY
PW lives in Boyolali, Central Java. His mother-in-law, Aminah, 57, lived alone in the village of Sindon, in the sub-district of Ngemplak. PW bought sate ayam. He mixed rat poison into the skewers. He created a fake account on an ojek online application. For the name and profile photo, he chose Luriyanti Putri — Aminah’s own daughter, his sister-in-law.
The order arrived at Aminah’s door. She called her daughter to ask whether it was she who had sent the skewers. Luriyanti said no. She urged her mother not to eat them.
Aminah ate.
THIRTEEN SKEWERS
The next morning, May 19, Aminah’s daughter found her mother. The door was locked. The lights were on. Aminah’s body lay on the floor, rigid, her face bluish, her mouth fouled with vomit.
Thirteen satay skewers were found at the scene. A dead chicken was discovered nearby — it had eaten scraps from the skewers.
The family reported a suspicious death to the Boyolali Police (Polres Boyolali).
THE AUTOPSY
Polres Boyolali, working with the forensic unit of the Central Java provincial police (Biddokkes Polda Jateng), exhumed the body on May 30 for an autopsy.
Analysis confirmed the presence of a toxic substance in Aminah’s body, in the remaining satay, and in the chicken carcass.
PW confessed. He said he acted out of resentment: the victim did not give him the recognition he felt he deserved.
“PW had indeed planned his act,” said the head of the Boyolali Police criminal investigation unit, Inspector AKP Indrawan Wira Saputra, at a press conference on June 8, 2026, at Mapolres Boyolali.
Boyolali Police commander Lieutenant Colonel AKBP Indra Maulana Saputra detailed the method: “The suspect mixed rat poison into the satay skewers, then used a fake account to have them delivered to the victim’s home.”
PW is the sole suspect. The case was reported by detikJateng.
HUKUMAN MATI
PW faces charges under Articles 458 and 459 of Law No. 1 of 2025, Indonesia’s new Criminal Code (KUHP). “The applicable penalties include the death penalty, life imprisonment, or a maximum prison sentence of twenty years,” said Indra.
BACKGROUND
Sate ayam is considered Indonesia’s most iconic street food. Every evening, hundreds of vendors light their charcoal grills along the roads of Java. Ojek online apps — Gojek and Grab chief among them — transformed home food delivery across the archipelago. Indonesia has more than 280 million inhabitants and is the largest platform economy market in Southeast Asia.
Boyolali is a district in Central Java located northwest of Mount Merapi. The area is known for its grazing land and agricultural markets. It is somewhat less known for its poisoned home deliveries.
