Massacre suspect hangs self

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna – The suspect in last Thursday’s killing of five people, including four children, in Atimonan, Quezon hanged himself with a plastic cord around his neck in the comfort room of his cell at the municipal jail, police said.

Superintendent Ronnie Miralles, Atimonan police chief, said suspect Mario Banal was found dead by jail officer SPO2 Ceasar Macaraig at around 6 p.m. Sunday.

Banal was tagged in the fatal hacking of Elizabeth de la Torre, 27, and her children Elisa, three; Arvin, five; and Aizlli Nicole, four months, and Rose Marie San Juan, 12, a neighbor of the De la Torres in Barangay Malusac, Atimonan town.

Police said the victims were on their way home after playing in a peryahan when Banal attacked them with a bolo. Banal escaped, but was arrested in his house the next day.

Banal admitted to probers that he killed the victims because he was angry with San Juan’s elder sister who he wanted to court but had ignored him.

Miralles said Banal initially planned to kill San Juan’s sister that night but he saw her accompanied by her father.

Distraught, Banal drank several bottles of beer at a nearby sari-sari store before turning his ire on San Juan as well as De la Torre and her three children, who just happened to be with her then.

Miralles quoted Dr. Maricel Leal, municipal health officer, as ruling out any foul play in Banal’s death.