Pregnant student stabbed 26 times

A 20-year-old graduating education student, who was four months pregnant, was stabbed 26 times by her live-in partner in an apparent crime of passion at their love nest last Tuesday in Caloocan City.

The suspect used a 12-inch kitchen knife, the handle of which was wrapped in a piece of cloth. Police have yet to establish the motive for the gruesome killing.

Superintendent Napoleon Cuaton, Station Investigation and Detection Management Bureau (SIDMB) chief, identified the victim as Roselyn Cabanilla, 20, senior BS Education student of Holy Rosary College and a resident of Barrio Concepcion, Tala in Caloocan City.

Superintendent Vladimir Villasenor, Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) chief, who conducted the autopsy, said Cabanilla, who was four or five months pregnant, sustained two stab wounds in the abdomen, one in the groin and one hitting the fetus, and two in the chest.

There were two "defense wounds" that went through and through on the forearm, indicating she tried to parry the knife thrusts. Most of her wounds were in the back, apparently inflicted in frenzy after she fell on the floor.

PO2 Julian Chavez said the victim’s live-in partner and principal suspect, Dennis Habana, 22, a first year education student of the same college, is under investigation.

Habana reported the killing to the police at noon of the same day he allegedly found Cabanilla lifeless and bathed in her own blood.

Habana has been detained for murder.

Records showed the murder happened between 9 a.m. and noon of Tuesday, Aug. 8, inside a house in Barrio Concepcion, Tala, which the couple shared.

Romel Enriquez, a neighbor, said they heard nothing that would indicate something was happening.

During the course of investigation, probers saw the suspect bearing wounds in both palms of his hands.

Witnesses told probers the two were the only persons seen inside the house before and after the incident.

Chavez said the weapon, when found, was already washed clean. The improvised cloth handle, however, was bloodstained and still wet.