Ambulant vendors nabbed for killing maid of ‘suki’

CONFESSION Suspects Orlan Pineda (right) and Charlie Valles own up to the crime, saying they needed money. —JAM STA ROSA

With the help of the victim’s neighbors and footage taken by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera, the Quezon City police identified the two suspects who allegedly robbed and killed the 67-year-old maid of their “suki” (regular customer) in her house in Quezon City.

Ambulant fish vendors Orlan Pineda, 38, and Charlie Valles, 45, were arrested in Caloocan City in a follow-up operation on Monday night, just hours after Angelita Angeles found the body of her maid, Leoncia Tupas, in the kitchen.

In their statements to authorities and interviews with reporters on Tuesday, the suspects owned up to the crime but blamed each other for Tupas’ death.

Familiar faces

Chief Supt. Joselito Esquivel Jr., Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director, said Pineda and Valles had been peddling fish and crabs for the past five years at Barangay Central, where Angeles lived with Tupas, making them familiar faces in the neighborhood.

Footage from a CCTV camera showed the two men walking toward the house of Angeles, a retired university professor, on Matiyaga Street at 3:40 p.m. on Monday.

The two women knew the two vendors because Angeles was a regular customer.

Investigation showed that after a brief chat with Tupas at the gate, Pineda and Valles entered the house where they were offered water and food.

Chief Insp. Elmer Monsalve, head of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said that Angeles was in her prayer room when she saw the two men in her house.

She then reportedly told Tupas to prepare coffee for them.

Angeles told investigators that after praying, she went to the kitchen where she saw her maid lying lifeless on the floor, her body tied up using pieces of cloth.

Call for help

The professor sent a text message to her son. In turn, he called up a neighbor who alerted barangay and police officials.

Monsalve said Pineda and Valles could have attacked Tupas as she prepared their coffee.

Initial examination showed that she might have died of asphyxiation as she did not have any external injuries, except for bruises on her face.

Through the CCTV footage and statements from neighbors, policemen from the Kamuning station arrested the suspects around 11 p.m. in Valles’ house in Caloocan City.

Suspects’ confession

Pineda and Valles told reporters they never intended to kill Tupas.

But both admitted they tied the elderly woman and punched and kicked her when she began screaming for help.

They took from the victim a coin purse that contained cash totaling P7,000. The money was recovered in Valles’ house.

“We just really needed the money,” Pineda said, with Valles adding: “We were so surprised that she died.”

Both expressed regret over their crime.

Monsalve said Tupas had been working for Angeles for only two months. Her relatives have yet to approach the police.