Magician suspect in wife’s death

A few hours after she surprised her husband with a birthday party, she shocked him by allegedly putting a bullet through her heart.

Police have initially taken the word of TV magician Allan de Paz, who said his wife Maricar, 34, killed herself while the couple were inside their vehicle then parked in front of their house in Lamar Village, Marikina City, before dawn on Tuesday.

But the chief of the Marikina police, Senior Supt. Gabriel Lopez, yesterday said “the victim was with him (De Paz) at the time of the incident. That automatically makes him a suspect.”

‘’But we will file a complaint against him only if the family of the victim wishes us to,” Lopez said.

Police are investigating if there was foul play and have subjected De Paz—known on TV as the magician Alakim—to paraffin tests.

Alakim was a grand finalist in the “Pilipinas Got Talent–Season I” contest in 2010 and had appeared in some shows on ABS-CBN.  Maricar was a nurse by profession and was head of supervisors at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Global City, Taguig.

The couple have a 10-year-old child. She lost another child during pregnancy last year, police said.

Based on De Paz’s statement to the police, his wife Maricar shot herself in the chest when they were having an argument in their Honda CRV at around 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

The bullet pierced her heart and exited through the glass window at the back of the vehicle.

De Paz, 31, rushed his wife to Marikina Valley Hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead upon arrival.

Lopez said De Paz suffered a wound on his hand purportedly in his attempt to stop his wife from shooting herself.

“We are waiting for the results of the paraffin test and ballistic exams to check if there are inconsistencies in Allan’s statement,” the police official said.

Lopez noted that it was unlikely for a woman who earlier arranged a surprise birthday party for her husband in a bar on Timog Avenue, Quezon City, to suddenly turn suicidal.

“She’s a successful woman working as manager for St. Luke’s. It’s really unlikely,” he said.

According to their friends and relatives, the couple appeared to be happy together during the party, Lopez said.

If indeed they later had an argument which led to the shooting when they reached their house, “perhaps she acted on impulse,” Lopez said.

Lopez said De Paz refused to give them further details about their argument, but investigators surmised that a fit of jealousy prompted Maricar to kill herself with a .38 caliber pistol reportedly owned by De Paz.