Couple charged over man’s burnt remains

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Police have charged an employee of this city’s Population Commission (PopCom) office and her husband with murder after a man’s partially burnt body was found in their toilet.

Senior Superintendent Nicanor Targa, city police chief, said couple Conrado and Violeta Mendoza were tagged as the killers of 32-year-old Henry Capule, whose burnt body was found in the toilet of their house here.

Probers said the Mendozas invited Capule to their home supposedly to discuss their dispute over a pawned property.

Neighbors told police that they saw flames in the Mendozas’ toilet a day after they saw Capule entering the couple’s house.

Worried after her husband failed to return home, Capule’s wife Raquel, along with her parents, went to the Mendoza residence. But the couple said Capule was not there.

This prompted Raquel to seek police help after seeing her husband’s motorcycle parked in the Mendozas’ yard.

Targa said he immediately dispatched a police team to the Mendoza residence where they found Capule’s partially burnt body.

Violeta, who works for the local PopCom office, voluntarily surrendered to the team, while her husband later gave himself up to the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila, Targa said.

Probers noted deep marks around Capule’s neck, showing that he was strangled. Apparently, the suspects had planned to burn his body beyond recognition before disposing of it, they said. — Ding Cervantes