Maid who poisons employers bolts jail

MANILA, Philippines - A woman convicted of poisoning then robbing 10 families she worked for as a maid has escaped from the Women’s Correctional facility Saturday, a police official told The STAR yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Nelson Yabut, who arrested Anamae Livrando in 2008 after she poisoned eight Filipino-Chinese families in Binondo, said operatives of the Women’s Correctional recovery unit have asked his assistance in tracking down the convict after she was discovered missing in her cell.

“I was informed that Anamae was able to scale the high wall of the penitentiary and escape unnoticed,” Yabut said.

Livrando, dubbed by the police as “Poison Ivy,” also escaped from the Manila City Jail, where she was detained while her cases of frustrated homicide and robbery were being tried following her arrest.

She was rearrested by Quezon City policemen in August 2011 after she poisoned two more families and was convicted for multiple cases of frustrated homicide and robbery.

Livrando’s modus operandi is to befriend security guards of high-end condominium buildings and later asked them to vouch for her character in applying as housemaid to her intended victims.

Once employed, she would mix poison in the food she prepares for the family and other helpers in the house. She then steals her employers’ possessions while they are in the hospital.

During her first arrest in Binondo, she refused to reveal what type of poison she put in her victims’ food. One of her victims, a child of a prominent Filipino-Chinese couple, almost died.

Yabut, however, refused to comment on Livrando’s escapes from the two jail facilities but warned families to be wary in accepting housemaids.

“People should scrutinize the character of persons applying as housemaids. If possible try to secure police or NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) clearance from them. Now that Poison Ivy is on the loose again we are afraid that she will victimize innocent families,” Yabut said.