Maid tagged in couple’s slay

The Parañaque City police have taken into custody the househelp of a couple that was robbed and killed inside their house last Sunday.

Police chief Superintendent Roland Estilles said yesterday investigators are considering Salvacion Malubay, 42, a suspect in the killing of Primo Espiritu, 63, and his wife, Catalina, 55, of Ilang-Ilang Street, Sitio Matakdo, Barangay San Isidro.

Estilles said Malubay, a native of Cagayan de Oro, was initially invited for questioning after the bodies of her employers were discovered by neighbors.

During interogation, a relative of the victims noticed Malubay wearing Catalina’s ring, Estilles said.

Police then inspected the maid’s belongings and discovered the victims’ cellular phones and jewelry in her possession.

Estilles said the suspect, who had only been working for the victims for two days, could have been in cahoots with three other people. Neighbors of the couple became concerned after the couple did not come out of their house the entire day.

Inside, they found Malubay, who told them her employers were asleep in their room.

"When the neighbors opened the master’s bedroom, they found the couple already dead," Estilles said.

Primo was bludgeoned with a blunt object and strangled to death while Catalina was suffocated with a pillow, Estilles said. – Nikko Dizon