3 charged in gruesome Marikina killing

The Marikina City police filed murder charges against a caretaker and his three companions yesterday in the killing of his live-in partner last month.

City prosecutor Linda Adame-Conos recommended that the suspects, Enrico Lacaba, 34; Cayetano Navidad, 19; Eric Garcia, 32, and Jerry Moreno, not be allowed to post bail.

Conos also ordered Lacaba, Navidad and Garcia locked up at the Marikina City police station. Moreno remained at large.

During questioning, Lacaba, Navidad and Garcia admitted to Conos their involvement in the gruesome killing of Arlene Suelo, 39, a native of Davao City.

"The three confessed to the crime and Prosecutor Conos ordered the filing of murder charges against them," a police investigator said.

Meanwhile, Mayor Maria Lourdes Fernando directed Superintendent Sotero Ramos Jr., Marikina City police chief, to locate Suelo’s relatives so they could act as complainants in the case.

Lacaba admitted he burned the pictures and the clothes of his live-in partner after they killed and buried Suelo’s body inside the compound that they were looking over, located in the corner of Santan and Magnolia streets, La Colina Subdivision in Barangay Fortune. But Ramos managed to procure a picture of Suelo from Lacaba’s parents in Binangonan, Rizal.

"As of now, the local police are acting as complainant against the four suspects. But once Suelo’s relatives surfaces, they would be the one to act as complainant in the case," he said.

In their confession to Conos, Navidad admitted attacking Suelo first with a fan knife. Garcia stabbed Suelo in the back with an icepick while Lacaba clubbed his live-in partner with a piece of wood in the forehead.

Lacaba said he and Suelo were living in for eight years. They have three children, aged 6, 4, and 2. The three children witnessed the attack on Suelo but were locked up in their room when the suspects buried the victim’s body in a shallow grave, some 10 meters away from their shanty.