No clue yet on ad exec’s slay

The Mandaluyong City police yesterday said they still have no idea what the motive was in the murder of a 35-year-old female advertising executive found dead in her condominium late Thursday.

Police said the victim, Donnabel España Tolentino, assistant vice president for media of MGM Advertising, and a resident of E. G. Lentine Mansion, Barangay Highway Hills, was brutally killed.

Mandaluyong City police chief Superintendent Ericson Velasquez said it is not clear why the victim was killed and if she was raped.

Authorities have ruled out robbery as a motive because nothing seemed to be missing.

"It’s not clear. But in the absence of a forensics (test), there is no confirmation on the allegations that she was raped," Velasquez told The STAR.

Tolentino was found half naked, wearing only a shirt.

Velasquez, however, said crime scene analysts found scratches on her body that suggested rape but they look like old injuries and may not be connected to her death.

He refused to say if they have any possible suspects. Tolentino’s friends have told police that she had a suitor but investigators are not yet considering him a suspect. Tolentino was married but separated from her husband. She has two children, believed to be in London.

Case investigator PO1 Domingo Menes said the victim was strangled with a pillow case that was used as a rope.

The victim was on the floor with the pillow cover still around her neck, the police said.

Tolentino was discovered by her friends inside her condominium at around 8:40 p.m. Thursday when she failed to report for work.

Police said there was no indication that the killer forcibly entered the room, indicating that Tolentino knew the killer. Her colleagues and friends also believed that Tolentino knew her killer.