Davantes uncle questions robbery angle

MANILA, Philippines - Despite the arrest of five men who confessed to killing Kristelle “Kae” Davantes, relatives of the advertising executive still have questions regarding the circumstances that led to her death.

The victim’s uncle, Vincent Davantes, said they could not help but question some aspects in the attack on his niece, who was taken in front of their house with her car, robbed and killed on Sept. 7. Her body was dumped under a bridge in Silang, Cavite hours later.

“We want to be sure whether it was a case of robbery or the suspects are using it to give the case a different face. They can conveniently claim it was robbery but what if there’s another motive?” Vincent said during an interview aired over dzMM. 

Vincent said while their family is thankful to Task Force Kae and the National Bureau of Investigation for the immediate arrest of five of the six men accused of killing Davantes, they do have questions that investigators have yet to be clarified.

Vincent, task force head Chief Superintendent Christopher Laxa and NBI assistant director Vicente de Guzman Jr. were guests at dzMM Saturday night. 

“Investigators said it was a simple case of robbery went wrong, but why not just grab Kae’s car keys and get away with the car? Another question is why they strangled her when there were stab wounds near her neck,” he said.

Vincent also asked why an ordinary single-edged knife, reported to have been used to stab Davantes, was recovered when members of the police’s Scene of the Crime Operation reported that the wounds were from a double-edged blade.

He said their family believes that Samuel Decimo Jr., who claimed that his companions told him to kill Davantes, was really part of a gang along with Reggie Diel, Lloyd Benedict Enriquez, Kelvin Jorek Evangelista, Jomar Pepito and Baser Minalang. Only Minalang remains at large.

During the NBI’s re-enactment of the attack last Wednesday, Vincent said Davantes was not in the vehicle and was about to open the gate of their house when she was abducted.

He said Decimo’s statements raised more questions than answers – in particular, whether the robbers are neophytes, as they claimed. Vincent noted that the manner in which she was killed was so brutal.

Davantes was found with her mouth gagged with a handkerchief, her hands tied with her car’s seatbelt, and her neck repeatedly stabbed. Near her body were a knife and a length of wire believed to have been used to kill her.

Her car, a metallic beige Toyota Altis, was found abandoned in Las Piñas with the car seats missing. The suspects tried to set the car on fire but the alarm went off, rousing the residents of a subdivision in Pamplona 3 on Sept. 15.

Laxa and De Guzman, along with other police officers and NBI agents, did not offer any explanation on the issues raised by Vincent.