Crime of passion at BF-Las Piñas

Las Piñas police delved deeper yesterday in what is turning out to be a storied case involving affluent families, palatial homes, luxury cars and a tragic crime of passion.

Las Piñas police chief investigator Superintendent Efren Sindico said yesterday murder charges would likely be filed against Mary Beth Lopez, 57, wife of a scion of the wealthy Madrigal family, for the killing of their family nurse Belma Abello, 43, over the weekend.

Police said Abello was "accidentally" shot on Friday morning as she was being "interrogated" by Lopez on the whereabouts of the supposed mistress of Lopez’s husband Jose Vicente de Leon y Madrigal.

Lopez, who lives with De Leon in what police described as a "palatial" home at posh Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa City.

Police investigator Senior Police Officer 4 Ben Javier, however, countered that neither Lopez nor her relatives have even called the police and only security guards at their home spoke with them.

Police said Lopez fetched Abello from her home in Talon, Las Pinas, to search for her husband’s supposed mistress, whom police refused to identify and supposedly lives at the middle-class BF International Resort subdivision.

Police said Lopez suspected Abello, who apparently cared for the middle-aged and ailing De Leon, of abetting her husband’s alleged extramarital affair.

Lopez, according to the police, was apparently furious that her entire household staff supposedly knew about her husband’s alleged affair and was threatening Abello with a Glock 9-mm pistol to reveal the whereabouts of the mistress.

Abello’s children told police that Lopez indeed fetched the nurse from their home on Friday morning, Sindico said.

After fetching Abello, Lopez ordered her driver to stop at the corner of Elizalde and Tropical Avenues in BF International Resort and asked the driver to get out of her BMW sedan to allow the two women to talk in private at the back seat.

The driver, identified as Wences Tablang, 31, told police that the matron was grilling Abello about the mistress when he got out of the car. A few moments later, Lopez emerged from the car, allegedly holding the pistol, with Abello slumped on the back seat.

Tablang told police he wrestled with Lopez for possession of the gun when he saw the bloodied Abello slumped inside the car. Lopez supposedly fled the scene of the crime with the BMW. She was still at large as of presstime.

Tablang also said he took the victim out of the car and boarded a tricycle and brought the victim to a nearby clinic but they were told to proceed to the Las Piñas District Hospital where Abello died.

Security guard Conrado Erasga, 30, who was apparently on duty at the subdivision at the time of the incident, corroborated Tablang’s testimony.