Angeles City 'serial killer' finally falls

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – A computer technician tagged in a series of robbery-killings in this city was finally arrested in San Fernando, La Union yesterday afternoon.

The suspect, Mark Dizon, 28, yielded a caliber .38 revolver with eight bullets, a laptop, and a cellular phone when an Angeles City police team headed by Superintendent Elvis Diaz nabbed him in front of the San Fernando plaza, said Chief Superintendent Arturo Cacdac Jr., Central Luzon police director.

Expatriates here had offered a P100,000 reward for Dizon’s arrest.

Dizon, who also worked as a reflexologist, was nabbed five days after the killing of retired US Air Force M/Sgt. Albert Mitchell, 70, his wife Janet, 53, and their house helpers Isabel Fajardo, Marissa Prado, and Yulberto Catli in their home at Hensonville Court Subdivision in Barangay Malabanias here.  

Dizon was implicated in the killing and that of seven other people, mostly expatriates, in separate incidents in this city.

Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said Dizon is also the suspect in the killing of South African national Geoffrey Allan Bennun, 60, and his live-in partner, Abegail Helina, 20, whose decomposing bodies were found in their house at Oasis Hotel and Villas in Clarkville Compound in Barangay Anunas here last July 12.

Dizon was also tagged in the July 16 killing of Briton James Bolton Porter, 51, and his live-in partner, Melissa Madarang, 22, in their house at Sta. Maria Subdivision in Barangay Balibago here.

In all cases, Bautista said the victims’ laptops were stolen and a 9-mm pistol was the murder weapon, based on slugs found in the crime scenes.

Authorities said multiple murder and robbery charges will be filed against Dizon today.

Senior Superintendent Danny Bautista, Angeles City police chief, said they failed to file the case yesterday as it was a non-working holiday here because of the Iglesia Ni Cristo anniversary.

Bautista said the Mitchells’ daughter Czarina will be the complainant in the case.

Reports said Dizon once courted Czarina before she left for the United States after marrying a Filipino-American, and had befriended many expatriates in the city, including his alleged victims.

Meanwhile, Bautista said that although a local judge issued an arrest warrant for Dizon and a certain Edgar Bognot for car theft and robbery sometime in 2005, the case was eventually archived because the complainant failed to show up in court.

“Bognot was arrested while Dizon went into hiding. But sometime the following year, the case was archived,” he said.

Dizon’s alleged involvement in the killings was bolstered after a pawnshop owner surrendered last Sunday a laptop, a camera, and a cellular phone, which Dizon allegedly stole from Porter.

Dizon allegedly pawned the gadgets for P20,000 last July 21, a day before the Mitchells and their house helpers were killed.

Bautista backtracked on his earlier suspicion that Dizon’s motive was to gain access to his alleged victims’ bank accounts and financial dealings by stealing their laptops after killing them.

“I don’t think he is capable of such complex operations. He operated on his own,” he said. – With Ric Sapnu and Mike Frialde