Four persons found dead in a burned Olongapo City apartment

By Ronron
March 13, 2008

Four persons – two men and two women - were found dead in a three-storey apartment that was burned dawn of Thursday in Olongapo City, Zambales, police said.

City police chief Sr. Supt. Abelardo Villacorta said in an interview on DZMM radio that the each of victims bore a gunshot wound when examined by scene of the crime operatives.

“We believe that prior to the burning (of the apartment), the four victims were first shot. (The arson was intended) to cover and destroy the evidence probably,” Villacorta said in mixed English and Filipino.

The victims were identified as George Castor, Scarlet Garcia, Rachel Estacio, and Van Mark Bandejas, all residents of Olongapo City.

Villacorta said Castor and Garcia rent the apartment at 52-A Acacia Street in Barangay Gordon Heights. They are live-in partners and have only occupied the second and third floors of said apartment for just a month. The groundfloor is a laundry shop.

Estacio, meanwhile, is Garcia’s cousin, and the girlfriend of Bandejas, said Villacorta. Estacio is supposed to be in Valenzuela City, said her mother, because she is a student at Fatima College.

Villacorta said the victims, who are believed to be in their 20’s, must have been killed between 2 and 3 am yesterday (Thursday) because the fire was discovered by a neighbor past 3am.

He said the neighbor who lives across the victims’ apartment saw flames coming out from the third floor level. This prompted him to seek assistance from the city’s fire department.

A check later after placing the fire under control led firemen to the dead bodies of the victims at the second floor of the apartment. Affected by the fire are the second and third floors, said Villacorta.

The fire department reported the discovery of the dead bodies to the police at 3:50 am.

Villacorta said the two male victims were found lying on the floor in the living room area, with their respective hands tied with an electrical cord.

The female victims, on the other hand, were at the shower area of the comfort room, slumped on the floor beside each other.

Villacorta said the two male victims sustained fire injuries in their head since they were near a sofa and piles of paper that caught fire.

Based on the recovered slug and shell, the perpetrators used a caliber 45 and a 9mm in shooting their victims.

Villacorta said some neighbors heard the victims singing on videoke at around 11pm of Wednesday.

Another neighbor then saw two men leave the apartment at around 3am. But before leaving, they were seen transferring some things from a car believed to be that of the victims to a second car. The two men left on the second car.

Villacorta said the neighbor did not find suspicion at first against the two men because they were perceived to be friends or relatives of the victims.

“After several minutes, a fire was then seen at the higher level,” Villacorta said.

Villacorta said they suspect that the perpetrators used butane in setting the place to fire because a punctured butane container and a lighter were recovered inside one of the two bedrooms on the third floor.

“We are looking at the angles of love triangle or robbery because at the third floor where there are two bedrooms, the things are in disarray, from the cabinets to the bags,” he said.

Police noted that missing inside the apartment, according to the families of the victims, are the following, among others: laptop, an Ipod, a PS3 (playstation), and other electronic gadgets.

Villacorta said he has already created a task force that will focus in the investigation of said case./DMS