TOMI Michelle Masters, an American whose naked body was fished out of the Pasig River in Manila last Sunday had died of suffocation, police disclosed yesterday.
According to Senior Supt. Moises Villaceran Jr., Mandaluyong police chief, the autopsy result showed that suffocation was the cause of death of Masters, 23, of Indiana.
Her alleged killers — Troy Woody Jr., 21, and Mir Islam, 22, both chief executive officers of Luxr Limited Liability Co., a lending firm based in the United States — were arrested hours after they dumped her body into the river. The duo were charged with murder before the Mandaluyong prosecutors’ office on Monday.
Mir Islam told the police that Woody, boyfriend of the victim, had a misunderstanding few days before the said incident, Villaceran said.
According to the police official, Islam was previously arrested by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for helping start up a credit card fraud forum.
Villaceran said they learned that Mir Islam has served a jail time for serial stalking and revealing private or identifying information about people in the internet (doxxing) and sending police SWAT teams to people’s houses (swatting).
On June 25, 2012, Islam and nearly two-dozen others were caught up in an FBI dragnet dubbed as Operation Card Shop. The government accused Islam of being a founding member of carders.org, a credit card fraud forum — trafficking in stolen credit card information, and possessing information for more than 50,000 credit cards.
He was also a member of “UGNazi”, a hacking group that claimed credit for recent online hacks.
In June 2016, Islam was sentenced to a year in prison for serial stalking and posting their personal data on the Internet. Islam also pleaded guilty to reporting phony bomb threats and faking hostage situations at the homes of celebrities and public officials.
The duo were tracked down by Manila police on Monday after they were tipped off by one John Kenneth Quimba, driver of the Grab car they booked to transport the body of Masters which they stuffed in a large box.
Police eventually recovered the box that contained the body of the victim that was wrapped in duct tape. (Erma Edera)
