Jilted man, 27, hacks dead 50-yr-old woman in Talisay

A "love affair" between a 50-year-old woman and a 27-year-old man in Talisay City ended in a fatal and gruesome finale yesterday morning.

Police reports said that Edwin Arellano hacked dead Magdalena Reños in a violent fit that almost decapitated the latter inside her house in sitio Lupa, Villa Estelita, barangay Bulacao, Talisay City.

Arellano allegedly used a 19-inch bolo in hacking the woman in the cheek, the slash was so deep it reached her neck and almost cut her head apart.

Talisay homicide chief, Insp. Carmelita Condevillamar, said that Arellano, a Talisay-Cebu jeepney driver, reportedly went berserk when Reños told him that she wanted to end their relationship.

Witnesses said the two had a heated argument first before the incident. Reños failed to make to the Talisay District Hospital alive while Arellano immediately fled from the scene. The police are now conducting a manhunt against him.

Reños, according to reports, has been separated from her husband and was allegedly into a relationship since with Arellano, who the police also heard to be a drug dependent.

Police are now getting affidavits from witnesses: Jaime Liston, a mason who works in the construction of the house of the victim; Janet Taghoy, the victim's housemaid; and neighbor Eliseo Birao who reportedly witnessed the incident also.

As of yesterday's reports, the three believed that the suspect was high on drugs when he attacked Reños. - Flor Z. Perolina