Cops rule out suicide in death of New Zealand national

ANGELES CITY — Police investigators have ruled out the possibility of suicide in the death of aNew Zealand national after paraffin tests indicated he did not fire a gun.

City police director Senior Superintendent Jimmy Restua said investigators have no suspect yet in the killing of tourist Barry Garord of Knightbridge, New Zealand. Garord’s body was found by another tourist and the victim’s purported girlfriend, Analyn Rodriguez, in his apartment here last Sunday.

Restua cited a report from the Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) unit of the police indicating that paraffin tests on the body of the victim indicated no powder traces. A pistol and an empty slug for another pistol, however, were found near his body.

Restua said that he had instructed Chief Inspector Efren Miranda to track down any suspect in Garord’s killing.

Among those invited for questioning was the victim’s common law wife Dylin Solidum, 34.

Solidum said Garord could not have possibly committed suicide as he had previously revealed to her threats to his life. She said, however, that Garord did not tell her who was threatening him for fear that she and their two children would be dragged into his troubles.

Solidum said Garord had wanted to provide their sons good education and that he had planned to buy them a house.

Garord, she said, had planned to take their eldest son Justin Paul, 8, to New Zealand with him later this year to introduce the boy to his grandmother. — Ding Cervantes