American killed in Manila hotel

Investigators of the Western Police District homicide section are stumped by the death of an American male in a hotel room in Ermita, Manila Wednesday night.

Police reports identified the victim as Barth Suretsky, 65, a retired teacher from New Jersey and temporarily billeted at room 2003 of the Grand View Hotel at 1716 M. H. del Pilar St., Ermita.

According to police, the victim was found at about 9:30 p.m. inside his hotel room by hotel security personnel and his friend Rafael Guerrero, who rushed to the victim’s room after Suretsky reportedly failed to answer his calls on both his hotel room phone and cellular phone.

Guerrero told hotel security that the victim’s room was locked from the inside. This prompted the security personnel to force open the door. There, they found the victim lying on the floor with a nylon cord looped around his neck.

Police added that the victim had also been stabbed in various parts of the body and was hit on the head with a blunt object before he was strangled to death. According to police, the victim had been staying in the country since 1998 after retiring from his teaching job in the US. He had been staying in the hotel for a year, police added.

At the moment, WPD homicide investigators have started rounding-up possible witnesses to shed light on the case. Police said that prior to his murder, the victim had several male visitors in his room.

Meanwhile, a 19-year-old security guard was arrested yesterday for allegedly raping a grade six student inside the school he was guarding last Aug. 23 in Pasig City.

The suspect, Simplicio Colache, single and stay-in security guard at the Santolan Elementary School in Barangay Santolan did not resist arrest when men of Superintendent John Sosito, Pasig City police chief, came to arrest him.

Colache denied the charges against him.

But the victim positively identified Colache as the one who raped her inside the school clinic at the height of heavy rains last Aug. 23.

Inspector Antonio Paulite, Pasig City police Criminal Investigation Division chief said the girl was bathing in the rain when Colache took notice of her.

The school principal had sent home the students as advised by officials of the local Department of Education, but the girl remained in the school compound.

The victim revealed her ordeal to her classmate who in turn reported the incident to the school principal. – Mike Frialde and Non Alquitran