By ALEXANDRIASANJUAN
TWO ambulant fish vendors were arrested by police two hours after they robbed and killed a 67-year-old housemaid inside the house of her employer in Quezon City, Monday afternoon.
Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent Joselito Esquivel Jr., said the suspects identified as Charlie Valles, 45, a resident of Caloocan City, and Orlan Pineda, 38, of Nueva Ecija, were apprehended in a follow-up operation.
Initial investigation showed that the two suspects had been roaming vendors of fish and crab for five years. One of their regular customers was the victim’s employer, Angelita Angeles, a 73 year-old retired professor of the University of the Philippines.
The victim, identified as Leoncia Tupas, had been Angeles’ maid for two months and seemed to be close to the suspects, investigators said.
Chief Inspector Elmer Monsalve, head of QCPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said that the suspects, who are using illegal drugs, went to the house of Angeles on Matiyaga Street in Barangay Central at around 4 p.m.
Based on the clip of a nearby closed-circuit television, the two suspects were apparently selling fish to the victims as one of them was seen holding a blue pail.
Police report showed that Tupas had a brief chat with the suspects at the gate before they entered the house.
According to Angeles, the victim even offered the suspects water and food while watching television at the kitchen on the ground floor of their three-story house while she was praying in their prayer room also located on the same floor.
After praying, Angeles noticed that the suspects already left and when she went to the kitchen, she saw Tupas already lying lifeless and hogtied with pieces of clothes.
Angeles immediately texted her son about the incident.
The son in turn informed his friend living nearby his mother’s house, who verified and reported the incident to authorities.
After obtaining CCTV footages in the area, neighbors and family members confirmed that they knew the suspects. Police arrested the duo at Valles’ house.
Seized from them were a brown coin purse with Php7,000 cash that they took from the victim and the two blue pails used as fish and crab containers.
The suspects admitted the crime but explained that they did not intend to kill the maid as they were only after the money.
Further investigation showed that the two also tried to search for more valuables on the second floor of the house but found nothing.
They also confessed that they only kicked and punched the victim on her chest and body and were shocked when they noticed that the old woman was already dead.
Monsalve said they are initially looking into asphyxia as the cause of death of Tupas as she was also gagged with a piece of cloth.
The two suspects will be brought to the City Prosecutor’s Office for robbery with homicide charges.
