RI worker found dead

A 48-year-old plantation worker was found dead with a gunshot wound on his shoulder in his veranda at Kampung Ulu Kimanis near DZ Nature Resort, about 500 metres from Jalan Kimanis-Keningau, Saturday.

Urbanus Baru, 48, an Indonesian (RI), was discovered by his neighbour, Yusmadi Tuah, at about 9.30am.

"I was on my way to the plantation site and saw him lying on the veranda.

I called out his name but he did not respond É so I thought he was just sleeping.

"The second time I went past his house, he was still there. I called him again but there was still no response. So I sensed something was not right É I even joked, saying Banus, ko mati kah? (Banus, are you dead?).

"I checked and that was when I found out he was dead. There was blood on the floor," the 29-year-old neighbour said, adding the last time he saw the victim alive was Friday evening.

District Police Chief, DSP Nek Zaidi Zukaria, said a 41-year-old local living near the area was arrested following a report lodged at 11.45am.

"Police arrested him at his house, which is about half a kilometre from the victim's. The suspect tried to escape but failed. Police have not established any motive but it was learnt that the suspect is mentally unstable.

We will investigate but so far police believe one suspect was involved," he said at the scene.

Zaidi said police have also found the murder weapon, a homemade gun (bakakuk) and that the case has been classified as murder, adding that the victim was shot point blank Friday night.

One of the victims' friends, Joyah, in her 40s, said he stayed on his own and had no enemies.

"He was a nice person and he had been staying here for seven years.

He had a wife and a daughter, in her 20s, who had just got married two months ago in Indonesia," she said.