Manila cops solve condo rape-slay

One of the suspects identified as Philippe Marcelo, a sophomore student at the Philippine Women’s University and a tenant at the sixth floor of the Vellagio Tower in Leon Guinto street in Malate, was escorted by police to face an inquest fiscal yesterday.

The other suspect, one Babes Reyes, between 20 and 25 years old and a tenant at the 11th floor of the same building, remains at large.

The naked body of Candice Castro, 22, an employee of the Metrobank Leon Guinto branch located near the Vellagio Tower, was discovered bloodied and lifeless inside her own condominium unit at the 11th floor of the building last Wednesday morning.

She was found on the bed with multiple stab wounds in the chest. The wooden handle of a floor mop was still embedded in her private part when the body was discovered.

Splotches of blood were scattered on the bed and the walls of her rooms. A broken flower pot and scattered soil were found on top of her head.

Investigator SPO2 David Tuazon said Marcelo was among a group of male tenants of the building earlier invited by the police for questioning after they were reported to be engaged in heavy drinking inside the building hours before the victim was discovered. Marcelo was held after his face shows fresh scratches.

In his sworn affidavit, Marcelo implicated Reyes, reportedly a son of an official of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, as the last person he had seen knocking at the victim’s room on the night before the victim’s body was discovered.

Marcelo said Reyes was with them during their drinking session.

The building’s security guard said he saw Castro alive past midnight Wednesday when she accompanied her visitors to the ground floor below. She later returned to her unit alone.

At about 9 a.m., her co-workers at the bank became worried when she failed to report for work and answer their call through the telephone. With a duplicate key, her co-employees opened her unit and found her already dead inside her room.

The Interpol Division of the National Bureau of Investigation is conducting a parallel probe on the case.