Contract murder of Robert Ellis cost wife $15,000

Couple's luxury villa

The contract murder of Australian-British expatriate Bob Ellis cost his wife about $15,000, Bali police have revealed.

A police spokesman said that Ellis' Indonesian wife, Julaikah Noor Aini, paid 150 million rupiah to a group of people which included her own housemaids to secure the death of her husband of about 20 years.

"The money was paid in two instalments, 50 million paid before the execution, the rest, 100 million, after they committed the murder," Bali police spokesman Hery Wiyanto said.

Two housemaids and another man, Andreanus Ongo, the boyfriend of one of the maids, are in custody for the murder, which was alleged to have taken place in the kitchen of the luxury villa the couple shared.

"The wife was the mastermind and one man who committed the murder, with four men still on the run," Mr Hery said.

"Two of the housemaids assisted with cleaning up and to keep the dog quiet."

Each maid was paid 5 million rupiah ($500) for their role, which included cleaning the blood out of the kitchen.

Mr Hery said they were still confirming the exact figure paid to the group, but said police had already recovered 39 million rupiah (about $3900).

Four fugitives are still on the run, and there were indications some of them may have left the island and others were still in Bali.

Ellis's wife Noor confessed about 7.30pm on the day his body was found, his throat slashed, wrapped in plastic and dumped in a ditch at the edge of a rice field.

She now faces the potential death penalty for a premeditated murder charge.

The pair were wealthy and ran a number of businesses including a dive shop, a telecommunications supply company and an aviation company. They were building a hotel and considering investing in seafood processing facility in Sulawesi.

The tragedy has left two sons of the marriage without a father, and their mother in jail for his murder.

Speaking from their home in Perth, where both were students, they said late on Wednesday that they were "completely devastated by the loss of our dad, Robert Ellis, who has been such a vital part of our lives.

Robert Ellis and wife Julaikah Noor Aini

"The circumstances surrounding the death of our father is something we are still trying to come to terms with at the moment. We are fortunately surrounded by family and friends who care for us enormously, but we do ask people to understand that we now need our privacy at this extremely difficult and sad time."

The boys read about their father's death on the internet — their mother had not even told him he was missing.

Ellis, 60, also had two adult children from a previous marriage. He had joint Australian-British citizenship and had lived in Melbourne for a number of years before moving to Bali about 20 years ago.

A friend said Ellis and Noor had been having marital trouble for more than a year.

"He told us that things were just not working with him and Noor. Privately he said he was desperately trying to get Indonesian citizenship, because absolutely everything, all the businesses, were in Noor's name, 'And if it all goes to shit, well, I'm moving quite quickly'," Ellis had told his friend.

In Indonesia, non-citizens cannot own property or businesses, and must have a native-born nominee. Noor was Ellis' nominee.

A friend had earlier told Fairfax Media that Ellis was an extremely hard-nosed businessman and tight with money, but another friend, Ross Taylor of the Indonesia Institute, said he was generous to those close to him.

"He was very, very hard in business, but to a close friend he was extremely generous, decent … The big arguments I had with Bob were him wanting to pay for dinner, put us up without a contribution."

As for Noor, Mr Taylor said, "if you had to stereotype her, she was very hard-nosed, Chinese, business orientated woman, but on a personal level, a good lady. If I was running a business up there and wanted someone to really run it, I'd employ her."

— with Amilia Rosa