Mute witness solves market slay puzzle

Actions truly speak louder than words.

A 29-year-old man who has difficulty speaking proved to be the most credible witness in the grisly murder of a businesswoman and her housemaid inside a public market in Caloocan City over the weekend.

Allan Loberiano, a mute working as a butcher at the Bagong Silang Public Market, pointed to his two co-workers, Dario Abraham and Larry Rocabo Jr., as the alleged killers of Lourdes Arpon-Rivera, a 72-year-old businesswoman, and her maid, Genda Batucan, 16, on Saturday.

Prober PO3 Nilo Padulaga said the suspects were arrested in two successive operations at their respective houses in Bagong Silang.

First to fall was Abraham; he was arrested at his house on Phase 8-A, Package 7, Block 5, Lot 23, Bagong Silang, at around 12 noon Saturday.

Rocabo, of Phase 4, Package 9 also in Bagong Silang was nabbed at around 6 p.m. the same day.

According to Padulaga, hours after the discovery of the victims’ dead bodies inside their store in the Bagong Silang market’s dry goods section, the police received reports that a mute butcher may know something about it.

He said they interrogated Loberiano, who answered through his sister serving as interpreter. The mute butcher named Abraham and Rocabo as the alleged perpetrators of the crime. He even told lawmen that Abraham was courting the young maid Batucan whose half naked body bore signs of rape.

Arresting policemen found sticks of dried marijuana from the suspects who admitted of using the illegal drug but denied having anything to do with the killings. The suspects are now in police custody awaiting the filing of formal charges.

The bodies of the victims were discovered at dawn of Saturday. The old woman was found dead on a bench on the first floor of the dry goods store, while the young maid was in a room on the second floor. Both died of multiple stab wounds.

The motive for the killings is yet to be established, although the police initially thought the crime as the handiwork of Akyat Bahay thieves since a number of valuables were found to be missing from the store.

Senior Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr., Northern Police District director, commended the Caloocan City police for the immediate arrest of the suspects.