Lotto winner denies role in murder

The widow of instant millionaire Arturo Eufemia submitted herself yesterday morning to questioning by the police and claimed she had nothing to do with her husband’s murder.

Leticia Eufemia, 52, appeared before Superintendent Jose Dayco, Antipolo City police chief, to clear her name.

She was accompanied by a relative, a police senior inspector assigned at the Philippine National Police crime laboratory at Camp Crame.

It was reported earlier that police were looking for Eufemia after she failed to come home despite the killing of her 58-year-old husband last Sunday.

Rumors were rife among residents of the Nazarene Ville subdivision in Barangay San Roque, Antipolo where the Eufemia family lived, that Leticia plotted the murder of Arturo to keep to herself the P19.6-million lotto prize she won last Oct. 12.

The woman explained that she deliberately did not go home for fear that her husband’s killers were also after her.

After the questioning, Eufemia hastily left Dayco’s office with a promise to make herself available for further interrogation.

Meanwhile, Dayco gave assurances that they would leave no stone unturned in solving the Eufemia gunslaying.

He said they were already following some leads but admitted that so far, the evidence they have gathered was still inadequate to secure an arrest warrant against the suspects.

Dayco did not elaborate, saying it might jeopardize ongoing investigations.

Leticia and her daughter Melanie left their house at Nazarene Ville earlier on Sunday after she allegedly noticed some suspicious-looking men casing their place.

Arturo and their son Renan stayed behind.

Reports had it that Leticia blew her top over her husband’s nightly drinking spree with friends and relatives since they won the lotto jackpot.

Seven masked men reportedly barged into the Eufemias’ house at about 1 a.m. and shot dead Arturo, a former taxi driver, who had just finished another drinking bout with some neighbors.

The attackers reportedly ransacked the house before taking off with the victim’s brand new Toyota Grandia and a still undetermined amount of money.

A neighbor said he heard the commotion and reported it to the police hotline "117" but the police arrived after the killers had left. — Non Alquitran