Angeles expats urged: Testify vs serial killer

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Police authorities yesterday appealed to expatriates here to come out if they have been victimized in some ways by arrested serial murder suspect Mark Dizon.

This, after Senior Superintendent Danny Bautista, Angeles City police chief, told The STAR he came across information that Dizon, 28, was allegedly involved in banking fraud some 10 years ago.

Dizon, then a student under training in a local bank, was reported to have allegedly transferred the accounts of some bank clients to his personal account.

Bank officials uncovered the anomaly and tagged him as the culprit, reports said.

Investigators said Dizon seemed obsessed with gadgets, as he stole the laptops of three foreigners he allegedly killed, together with six Filipinos, in separate incidents here this month.

As a computer technician and reflexologist, Dizon had had clients among expatriates here.

An expatriate, who provided The STAR with several photos of Dizon posing with four different kinds of firearms, including an M-16, confirmed that Dizon had been suspected of copying private information from the laptops of his foreign clients.

“I have talked to some members of the foreign community here and I have asked those who have been victimized to come out and testify,” Bautista said.

Cases of identity theft arise from access to PINs or passwords required by banks or other financial institutions in withdrawing cash or transferring accounts.

Bautista dismissed suspicions that a local police syndicate extorting from foreigners could be behind Dizon’s operations.

“That’s very unlikely. I think he worked alone,” he said.

Bautista said his investigators went to San Fernando, La Union yesterday to file charges of illegal possession of firearms against Dizon who was arrested there last Tuesday afternoon while in possession of a caliber .22 pistol.         

Initially, five counts of murder with robbery were filed against Dizon in connection with 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 last July 22.  

Police said the victims’ laptops and other items that have been recovered, ballistic findings that a caliber 9-mm pistol was used in all the killings, and the testimonies of witnesses would be enough to also implicate him in two other murders.

The other victims were South African national Geoffrey Allan Bennun, 60, and his live-in partner, Abegail Helina, 20, whose decomposing bodies were found in their home at Oasis Hotel and Villas in Clarkville Compound, Barangay Anunas here last July 12.

Last July 16, British James Bolton Porter, 51, and his live-in partner, Melissa Madarang, 22, were also found dead with bullet wounds from a 9-mm pistol in their home at Sta. Maria Subdivision in Barangay Balibago here.

Meanwhile, reports said that on the eve of the Mitchells’ killing, Dizon was at a residence at Don Bonifacio Subdivision here to repair a friend’s laptop, soon after he had pawned the laptop, camera and cellular phone he allegedly stole from the Bennun couple.

While waiting for his friend, Dizon reportedly played a computer game with another member of the household.

“The computer game consisted of shooting zombies and he taught the household member how to make sure the zombies were killed by shooting them in the head,” said a friend of the family.

Police said Dizon shot his alleged victims in the head and then covered their faces.