Los Baños pedicab driver admits killing girl, 11

MANILA, Philippines - A pedicab driver has owned up to the killing of an 11-year-old girl, whose decomposing body was found on Thursday, nearly two weeks after she went missing in Los Baños, Laguna.

Superintendent Conrado Masongsong, Los Baños police chief, said the pedicab driver, Henry Hipolito, gave an extrajudicial confession on how he killed Grade 3 pupil Mary Grace Esguerra.

“Through our rigid interrogation, Hipolito broke down, cried and admitted the crime. He denied being a drug addict,” Masongsong told The STAR in a telephone interview.

He quoted Hipolito as saying that he felt that the devil entered his mind, causing him to commit the crime.

With Hipolito’s help, Esguerra’s decomposing body was found in an undeveloped portion of Villa Carangal Subdivision in Barangay Putho Tuntungin, Los Baños Thursday afternoon. 

Police said the girl was last seen alive last March 1 onboard the pedicab driven by Hipolito. 

PO1 Rommel Montecillo, officer on case, said Hipolito recalled hitting the victim’s head with a stone, which made her unconscious.

Then, Hipolito said he brought the victim to a grassy vacant lot at Villa Carangal where he started to undress her to rape her, but failed to do so because a tricycle passed by, forcing him to leave the place.