Love triangle in GRO's slay

Police investigators are eyeing a love triangle as the motive behind the slaying of a 22-year-old guest relations officer (GRO) whose body was found stuffed in a trash bag in Pasig City.

Eastern Police District (EPD) director Chief Superintendent Leon Nilo de la Cruz said the victim, Shahani Imran Maungco revealed in her last conversation with her sister on Oct. 14 that she was leaving the country to join her Filipino-American architect boyfriend in the United States.

“She (told) her sister that she was fearing for her life because her other boyfriend knew about her plans,” De la Cruz said, quoting the family of the victim.

De la Cruz vowed to leave “no stone unturned in their investigation to get the killers of Maungco,” who lived in with South African Christo Daniels in his rented house in Valle Verde 3 subdivision in Barangay Ugong, Pasig City.

Daniels and countryman Ronald Terense have denied involvement in Maungco’s death.

However, Superintendent Eduardo Villena, head of the EPD’s district investigation and detective management division took custody of Daniels and Terense’s passports to prevent them from leaving the country while the investigation of Maungco’s death is in progress.

Maungco’s decomposing body was found inside a black trash bag in the stockroom of Daniels’ house by family driver Andrew Manabat.

Villena also had a conversation with housemaid, Grace Libuna, who was traced by EPD operatives in her hometown in Calinog, Iloilo.

“I already sent fare money to Iloilo for Libuna to come and reveal what she knew about the crime,” De la Cruz said, noting that the housemaid would play a key role in the solution of the gruesome murder.

The EPD Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) reported that Maungco was tortured and strangled.      – Non Alquitran