Suspect owns up to crime: Mandaue cops solve death of 'textmate'

CEBU – Another case solved.

The suspect in the killing of a woman, who he met through a radio dating program, was arrested early yesterday morning in Mandaue City.

Julius Coton, 26, single of Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur and temporarily residing in sitio Aroma, barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City, did not resist arrest and owned up to the crime.

Coton, who also goes by the aliases Pane and Michael, admitted to raping and killing Emilie Nuñeza, a worker at the Mactan Export Zone.

The tip on the whereabouts of Coton came from a co-worker of Nuñeza, who heard about a man selling a cellular phone very cheap in their neighborhood.

When he checked the phone and asked the companions of Nuñeza about the victim’s phone, they suspected that Coton was involved in the crime since it was the same phone.

When they informed the police about the matter, a team led by Insp. Jorge Aniñon went to sitio Aroma to look for the man selling the phone then made the arrest after they were directed to the house where Coton was staying.

The suspect said that he came to Cebu in 2003 and stayed at the house of an aunt in barangay Canduman. He said that he used to work for a construction firm.

He also claimed to be an avid fan of the program Inday Misyel which was airing over another radio station and followed the program when it moved to another station.

It was through this show that he was able to meet women by giving out his cellular phone number to the radio host.

In the program, the host reads out the number of the listener and tells the audience what kind of person that listener wants to meet.

Coton said that he was able to visit the disc jockey twice during his radio program at Energy FM, which the disc jockey confirmed.

He said that his first encounter with the victim was last January 20, when he gave his number to Inday Misyel’s program and told the disc jockey that he was looking for a date.

It was Nuñeza who called him first and it was during their first conversation through cellphone that they both agreed to meet at MEPZ 2 were the victim was working.

The meeting transpired last January 21 where they proceeded to the Mactan Shrine and stayed there for two hours.

During the course of their conversation, the victim reportedly asked Coton about what kind of cellular phone does he use and he told her he had an Iphone.

He later borrowed Nuñeza’s phone and left the woman there saying that he would buy food for them and promised to return as he even left his phone with the victim.

Coton said that he did not return to the place where he left Nuñeza as she told him straight in his face that he was not her type of a man, which irked the suspect.

Two days after their meeting, the suspect said that the victim called him-up using another phone to ask where her

cellphone was.

Coton said that he told the victim her phone was with him and asked that they meet at the Caltex gasoline station in the Mandaue Reclamation Area.

The suspect said that he was unaware that the victim had companions and when he received a call from the victim using the cellphone of one of her companions, he instructed her to walk five meters and they met at the side of the gasoline station were the suspect waited for her near a trailer which was parked on a dark area.

He said that it was already 8 p.m. when they met last January 23. Coton added that the victim got mad at him when he told her that he already sold her phone and she threatened to report him to the police.

Coton said that this prompted him to get a nylon rope tied to a container van and used it to strangle Nuñeza and later brought the woman to a bushy area.

The victim, he said, struggled but later lost consciousness and it was at this point when he claimed that he raped Nuñeza.

“Apan sa dihang nahuwasan na sad siya, iya naman sad kong gihadlok nga isumbong sa polis busa gituok na pud siya ug balik hangtud nga namatay, unya kay gitunga man nako daan ang pisi dihang didto pa mi sa trailer dapit, busa ang katunga maoy akong gigapos pud sa iyang duha ka kamot ug gihipos nako siya didto sa kasagbutan,” the suspect said.

Coton said that he did not even hear the news of the discovery of the victim’s body and just stayed in sitio Aroma all the time.

He was probably so sure that nobody would know about the crime that he was filling up a bio-data form to apply for work at Colon Street when he was arrested.

Aniñon said that they were also able to recover the cellular phone of the victim, her co-worker’s cellphone and another Iphone from his neighbors in sitio Aroma, who bought the phone from Coton.

MCPO director Orlando Ualat said that he will be pushing for commendations and appropriate awards for his men, who were involved in the solution of the crime.

Police found the body of Nuñeza last January 28, five days after she was reported missing. The body was found at a grassy area behind the Caltex gasoline station.—/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)