3 slain in Cavite

MANILA, Philippines -  The bodies of three people with multiple stab wounds and their heads wrapped with duct tape were found in a house in Kawit, Cavite yesterday morning.

Senior Superintendent Danilo Maligalig, Cavite police director, said the bodies of the victims – identified as Cristy Chavez Saromo, 36; her live-in partner Edgar Zerida; and cousin Dennis Chavez Panganiban, 20 – were already in an advanced stage of decomposition.

Probers quoted witnesses as saying that they saw four men, two of them said to be relatives of the victims, arrive in the house in Bautista Compound late Saturday afternoon.

“Some neighbors noticed that late Saturday night, only one of the three was seen singing using the videoke and the sound was too loud at the terrace at the front door of the house,” Maligalig said.

Neighbors said the four men left after midnight and they had not seen the victims go out of the house since then.

Police gathered that Saromo was about to meet some friends last Saturday morning, but the woman failed to show up. Her friends were trying to contact her through her mobile phone but she did not answer their calls.

Police said some valuables were missing, bolstering their suspicion that robbery was the motive behind the killing. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Ed Amoroso