Cops tag neighbor in Caloocan girls’ slay

MANILA, Philippines - The Caloocan City police has launched a manhunt for a neighbor who had been courting a 15-year-old girl, accusing him of killing her and her nine-year-old cousin in the family’s rented house in Dagat-Dagatan Sunday.

 Senior Superintendent Rimas Calixto, Caloocan City police chief, said at least four witnesses pointed to Gilbert Fulloso, 25, the alleged suitor of Diana Rose Liza, 15, as the prime suspect in the killing of Liza and her cousin, Joanna Marie Coronado.

He added that there are pieces of evidence “recovered that point to Fulloso as the prime suspect.”

Calixto said that Fulloso, a first year high school student at a public school in Dagat-Dagatan, has been accused of rape in Bacoor, Cavite in 2007. According to insiders, Fulloso’s wife reportedly left him after he allegedly raped her sister.

Calixto said yesterday he sent a team to Cavite to verify with the Bacoor police the status of Fulloso’s rape case.

Mutilated

Coronado’s younger brother found the victims’ bodies at around 6:30 a.m. when he went to the house Liza shared with her aunt on Padas Alley in Barangay 12.

Chief Inspector Rodrigo Soriano, Caloocan City police investigation chief, said Liza, a second year high school student, was stabbed at least 59 times. Her neck was nearly severed from her body. Coronado died from at least 23 stab wounds.

A bloodied knife was found in the kitchen of the victims’ house.

Investigators said the door’s padlock was destroyed and no valuables seem to be missing.

Soriano said they could not yet ascertain whether the victims had been raped since the Northern Police District crime laboratory has yet to release its autopsy report.

Rejected

Soriano said Fulloso allegedly had been wooing Liza for some time, but the girl rejected him since she knew he already has a family. He said Fulloso has three children by his wife and is renting the house in Dagat-Dagatan.

Soriano said that bloodstains starting from the crime scene led investigators to the door of the suspect’s house, which is adjacent to that of the girls. He said investigators also found more drops of blood in Fulloso’s bathroom.

He said probers also recovered a pair of bloodstained short pants left by the suspect at a friend’s house a few minutes before the crime was discovered.

Coronado was at the house to keep Liza company since her aunt was not around Saturday night.

A witness told police the suspect told her he killed two girls, around two hours before their bodies were discovered. The witness said she saw Fulloso’s right pinky finger and palm bleeding from cuts.

Another witness also saw Fulloso seated on the doorstep of his house, drinking liquor, around the time the crime was committed, police said.