Cops want paraffin test on couple

Policemen investigating the case of a couple found dead inside their bedroom of their house along Tabada Street, barangay Mambaling, last Sunday morning, requested the family to allow a paraffin test on the fatalities.

SPO3 Alex Dacua, an investigator of the case told The Freeman they wanted to verify their established suspicion that Johnson Ongchua, 49, shot his wife Juanita, 45, before turning the gun on himself after they had an argument that day.

The couple was found by their children and house helpers already dead on the floor of their bedroom at the second floor.

Police recovered a .45 cal. pistol with four live bullets, two empty .45 cal. shells, and a live bullet and a slug near the victims.

A glass table inside the room was also shattered.

"Kini aron makumpleto ang atong pagtuo nga kining lalaki mao gyuy nipusil sa iyang asawa, pero igo na kaayo kung mogawas nga positive ang lalaki o ba kaha bisan og silang duha kay posibleng dunay grapple nga nahitabo," Dacua said.

Police said it was also possible someone shot the victims and jumped out of the window of the second floor to escape.

It was the couple's 17-year-old daughter who first heard the victims having an argument before a gunshot rang out. She called for her mother but her stepfather reportedly answered that her mother was changing her clothes.

As the daughter went downstairs, she heard another gunshot coming from bedroom, this time she called her older brother and helpers and they forced the locked door of the bedroom open.

Dacua said that according to Onchua's sister Rowena Hermosa, the couple had frequent fights over Johnson's vices. Johnson was also reportedly taken to the hospital a number of times because of ulcer and vomited blood occasionally.

Johnson was also scheduled for hospitalization because of his arthritis, Dacua added.

Johnson owned several tricycles and taxi units and was once connected to a funeral establishment in Mandaue City, while his wife managed a travel agency.

A friend and neighbor of the couple, Rodulfo Mangapis, who was interviewed by The Freeman through telephone, said that he never heard the couple argue about something while they were playing mahjong.

But Mangapis said, Johnson has a tendency to be easily irritated and sometimes left the mahjong table while the game was still on. - Edwin Ian Melecio/BRP