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South Jakarta Police said on Monday that the two men arrested for the murder of an elderly Japanese couple in their home claimed they never actually meant to kill anybody, but that things got out of hand after they were caught red-handed burglarizing the house.

The couple’s former gardener, Cecep Abdullah, 22, was arrested within hours of the murder on Thursday while his accomplice, Iwan Iriawan, 18, was detained on Sunday.

The suspects have reportedly confessed to killing Yasuwo Hara, 69, and his wife, Mizue Hara, 67, when the couple surprised them while they were robbing the Tangerang home.

“Both suspects admitted they were trying to rob the house during questioning,” South Jakarta Police chief, Gatot Edy Pramono said on Monday.

Yasuwo, a retired teacher from the Jakarta Japan School, was found in the living room of the house with stab wounds to the chest. His wife, Mizue, was killed in the kitchen with stab wounds to her neck and abdomen.

She was the chairwoman of the Goodwill International Foundation, which helps Indonesian students complete their university studies.

Gatot said that Cecep and Iwan had only planned to burglarize the house, but decided to killed the couple when they came home to avoid being identified.

“I wanted to rob them because I needed money. I had no intention of killing them,” Cecep told reporters on Monday.

Cecep told the police that he planned the robbery after the Haras had fired him from his job as a gardener.

“It all started because one of the suspects was offended. He decided to rob the victims but had to kill them because he was caught and feared being identified,” Gatot said.

The suspects had robbed the house because they wanted to buy motorcycles, Gatot said, adding that when the Haras came home, Cecep took Yasuwo’s wife hostage at knife point. Yasuwo chose to fight and that’s when Cecep decided to kill him.

Iwan denied he killed the victims, saying that he was only helping Cecep hold the knife. He claims it was Cecep who killed the Haras. Iwan said he agreed to help because Cecep had promised him a motorcycle.