DETECTIVES whose persistence led to the conviction of Ermatati Rodgers’ murderer have been thanked personally by Indonesia’s UK ambassador.

Yuri Octavian Thamrin and wife Sandra presented officers involved in the case with a plaque with their names on it at a special ceremony held at Wrexham Police Station yesterday.

Ermatati Rodgers, 41, originally from Indonesia but living in Gwersyllt, was murdered by Lukasz Reszpondek and buried in a shallow grave near Wrexham in 2008.

Reszpondek, 28, was jailed for a minimum 18 years, after which he should be deported back to Poland

Mt Thamrin paid tribute to all members of the detective team involved and presented them with the special plaque engraved with each of their names.

Mr Thamrin said: “I came here from London to express our thanks.”

Asked about the 14 month investigation he added: “We kept holding our breath whenever we got developments from the police but it was not easy.

“We admire their professionalism. We think the UK is a safe country and a thing like this is not something that often happens.”

Chief superintendent Ruth Purdie said: “This is a fantastic accolade because the Indonesian people through their ambassador have come all the way from London to thank the investigation team led by Wayne Jones.

“They did a fantastic job and we got the right result.”

Speaking about the purpose of the ambassador’s visit, she continued: “They have asked to come and see the team, see where Ermatati Rodgers lived and where we found the body to understand what we did and how we got this positive result.”

Temporary detective superintendent Wayne Jones said: “It was quite a difficult case but as the inquiry was conducted and the picture was built up the team showed a great deal of motivation to keep going.

“There were times when we came up against a brick wall and couldn’t continue. But we delivered.

“Lukasz Reszpondek was a very determined individual and it just shows the professionalism by all the officers and the effort they made.”