CEBU CITY, Philippines — A British consultant of the TMX Philippines was found dead inside his car, which was parked at the basement of a shopping mall here shortly before Monday noon.
Police investigators said John Christopher Hayes, 51, and a resident of Cebu City, might have suffered a heart attack since they didn’t see any indication of foul play.
Hayes was on the driver’s seat of his Mitsubishi Fuzion with plate number YKS-751 when found about 11:30 a.m. at the Basement 2 of Ayala Center Cebu, said SPO2 Victor Ayuman, homicide investigator of Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).
He said the driver’s seat had been reclined and that there were no signs of forced entry or struggle. The foreigner also didn’t suffer any external injury.
Ayuman said not one of the foreigner’s belongings had been reported missing.
A co-worker of Hayes also told the police that the foreigner had been suffering from high blood pressure lately, he added.
But Ayuman said they would ask the police medico-legal office in Central Visayas to conduct an autopsy on Hayes to determine the cause of his death.
Before Hayes was found, his co-workers in TMX Philippines in Lapu-Lapu City had been trying to locate him after he failed to report for work on Monday morning.
His co-workers went to Hayes’ residence in Silver Hills Subdivision in Barangay Talamban but he was not there. They then asked the Globe Telecom to locate him through his cellular phone using the global positioning system.
Globe representatives informed the TMX workers that Hayes could be inside Ayala Center Cebu at the Cebu Business Park, prompting them to ask the mall security officers to locate him.
Erma Aransado, a female security guard of the mall, said she saw Hayes past 9:30 a.m. Monday at the elevator going to the parking area.
Ayala Center Cebu security officer Virgilio Flores and his driver Roger Ybañez found Hayes inside the Sports Utility Vehicle at Basement 2 of the mall.
Flores and Ybañez opened the vehicle, which was not locked, and found Hayes at the driver’s seat.
Ayuman said Flores sought assistance from the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation. The paramedics arrived and tried to revive Hayes but the foreigner didn’t have any vital signs.
TMX Philippines, a subsidiary of TMX Ltd., N.V., located at the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Lapulapu City (Mactan), Cebu, is one of the biggest exporters of watches.