[6] Her stomach, chest, and right arm were stabbed ten times, while her neck was slashed.
The murder occurred just three days after a Jakarta press conference held by the human rights organizations Ita had been involved with.
The groups claimed that several of their members had received death threats in an attempt to stop them calling for an international investigation into the gang-rapes, murder, and burning of Indonesian Chinese girls and women during the May 1998 riot; a riot which ultimately forced Suharto to step down from the presidency.
However, others question this statement because Ita and her mother, Wiwin Haryono, were due to leave in a few days for the United States together with four victims of the May 1998 riot to present their testimony before the U.S. Congress.
The group Ita and her mother had worked most closely with, an organization called Tim Relawan untuk Kemanusiaan (Voluntary Team for Humanity), concluded that Ita's murder was a warning to them and others who were involved in this humanitarian effort, to discontinue their activities.