Love triggers deaths

He could not bear that his former girlfriend had dumped him for another, who had to be his brother, so he stabbed her dead and killed himself with a pair of scissors.

This was what the police initially theorized, based on witnesses’ testimonies, after a 19-year-old utility boy in a garment factory in Caloocan City was found dead together with his 18-year-old childhood sweetheart, an all-around assistant of the firm’s owner, in the factory’s common bathroom yesterday morning.

Found inside the bathroom on the third floor of the building of the company they worked for were the bodies of Pablo Lafemia and Rose Fie Ramos. Both were stay-in workers at the Augustus Ramos Garments, located at Ramos Compound, Ramos Street, Barangay Talipapa, owned by Augusto Villafuerte.

Investigation showed the bodies were found by the victims’ co-workers at about 8:30 in the morning.

Witnesses told probers PO3 Raymond Mendoza and Michael Viray that prior to the discovery of the corpses, they saw the woman entering the toilet first, and then the man followed.

Mendoza said the couple, alleged childhood sweethearts, broke up a year ago on Ramos’ initiative. Lafemia’s heart was crushed further when he recently learned that his older brother, Albert, 26, was courting the love of his life. The two, although still rumored to be on the courtship stage, were believed to be already well into their relationship but were keeping it from Pablo.

Pablo got wind of the rumors and confronted his former girlfriend about it.

Viray, quoting witnesses, said that the previous night, Pablo had attempted to commit suicide with a knife but was prevented from taking his life after Rose Fie allegedly grabbed the weapon and kept it from him.

Probers initially said Ramos sustained several stab wounds in the body even as the local Scene of the Crime Office (SOCO) officers are determining the cause of the ill-fated former lovers’ death.