INDONESIA: A skeleton found in a house on the resort island of Bali is the remains of an elderly Spanish man last seen more than six years ago, Indonesian police said Friday.
The man's identity was confirmed after a hospital in the provincial capital Denpasar conducted a series of tests on the bones following their discovery this week by an Indonesian man claiming to be his adopted son.
“It has been confirmed that the skeleton belonged to a foreigner from Spain, Mario Llobet Esteban,“ local police chief I Ketut Sugiarta Yoga told AFP, saying the man was born in 1945.
Esteban's remains were found on Monday when Anang Firdaus, who had not been in contact with the elderly man for years, went to his rented house in Badung district.
It is not clear whether Firdaus was formally adopted by Esteban or whether his claim referred to a friendship struck between the pair.
The skeleton was found on a bed inside the locked house.
A cause of death has not been established but police said there was no sign of foul play.
The Spanish consulate could not be immediately contacted.
Made Karta, who lived nearby Esteban, previously told police he last saw him six years ago.
Karta had assumed the Spaniard left the island and returned home because he went back to Spain every year to renew his visa.
Community leader I Wayan Nalo said a group of locals held a cleansing ritual at the property on Thursday to ward off bad luck.
“We must hold a cleansing ceremony so this thing will not happen again in our village,“ Nalo said.-AFP
