Man charged with murdering wife, hiding her body in cave

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Saturday charged a 27-year-old man with premeditated murder, after he allegedly killed his wife and dumped her body in a deep cave in Mafraq, official sources said.

The suspect, a Syrian refugee, reportedly confessed to “murdering his 20-year-old wife, also a Syrian refugee, on Saturday, 20 days after reporting her missing to police”, a senior judicial source said.

The suspect claimed that he and his wife had “constant marital problems since the day they were married”, according to the judicial source, who is close to the investigation.

On February 3 an argument ensued between the two, the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

“The suspect confessed before Criminal Court Prosecutor Tayseer Bani Khalid to beating his wife with a wooden stick over the domestic dispute,” the source added.

He claimed that he left the house and “had no idea that his wife had died as a result of his constant beatings and that the following day he discovered that she was dead”, according to the judicial source.

The husband carried his wife’s body to a cave and dumped it in a seven-metre hole, covered it with rocks and left, according to a statement released to the press by the Public Security Department (PSD).

The suspect then went to a police station and reported his wife missing, the PSD statement added.

But the victim’s family had suspicions that “the suspect might have had something to do with her disappearance, so they kept pressing him until he confessed 20 days later”, the judicial source said.

An autopsy on the victim is expected to be performed on Sunday at the Irbid National Institute of Forensic Medicine, a senior medical source told The Jordan Times.

Although classified as refugees, the couple, survived by two boys aged two years and 18 months, was living outside the Zaatari camp, the official source added.

Bani Khalid ordered that the suspect be detained at a correctional and rehabilitation centre pending further investigations.