Cainta police see robbery, hunt suspect in med rep’s slay

Marichelle Nakpil on the loss of her daughter, Kath: “I don’t even know where to start now or how to lessen the pain.” Kath, who was stabbed to death on Sept. 21, would have turned 26 this Sunday. —Jhesset O. Enano

Robbery was now being considered as the motive in the gruesome killing of a 25-year-old medical representative whose body was found by her boyfriend at her house in Cainta, Rizal, last week.

According to the police, Maria Kathrina Nakpil was stabbed in the face, chest, arms and back at least 30 times around 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 21 inside her house at Vista Verde Executive Village.

Supt. Pablito Naganag, Cainta police chief, said they believed Nakpil was killed by a construction worker from a building site behind the victim’s house.

Earlier, the worker was tagged as a person of interest after footage taken by closed-circuit television cameras showed him limping and leaving the subdivision minutes after the killing.

Linked to another slay

Naganag added that the man was also being sought for another murder in Pangasinan province. The Inquirer is withholding the suspect’s name to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing police operations.

“He may have scaled the roof, jumped the wall between Nakpil’s house and the construction site, and waited for her to arrive,” Naganag told the Inquirer.

Investigators recovered from the scene a bloodstained bag which they said the suspect might have rummaged through for any cash. Some of Nakpil’s identification cards, also stained with blood, were found by neighbors in different areas around the village.

Among Nakpil’s belongings that were reportedly missing were her watch, a bracelet, a backpack, a pouch containing cash and some old gadgets.

Bloody footprints were also seen inside the house, some on the stairs leading to her room.

Naganag said the suspect had a standing arrest warrant for murder in Pangasinan, where he reportedly stabbed his victim 16 times. He was also reportedly jailed earlier in Urdaneta City on a rape charge.

Members of the Cainta police conducted follow-up operations in Pangasinan and La Union after reports that the suspect was sighted there, but failed to locate him.

Last seen with boyfriend

Earlier, the police also tagged Nakpil’s boyfriend as a person of interest in the case because he was the one who found her body and the last to be seen with her before she was killed.

According to the boyfriend’s sworn statement, he and Nakpil went to a coffee shop on Marcos Highway hours before she was killed. After they parted for the night, they spoke on the phone as he was driving home to Valenzuela City.

In the middle of the phone conversation, Nakpil paused and was later heard talking to someone else. She later screamed and groaned as if she was being attacked, prompting her boyfriend to hurry back to her house to check.

At that time, Nakpil was the only one home; her younger sister, Ellie, was still out.

Nakpil’s family welcomed the new development in the investigation. “I think this would be the perfect birthday gift for my daughter, Kath, who would have turned a year older this Sunday,” the victim’s mother, Marichelle, said in an interview at the wake being held in Antipolo City.

An overseas worker for nearly two decades, Marichelle said the news of her daughter’s death practically left her paralyzed. The single mother rushed home from Japan on Friday.

“Whenever there was a mosquito that was about to bite her, I would swat it twice just to make sure it won’t,” Marichelle said. “I don’t even know where to start now or how to lessen the pain.”