A 34-year-old woman died after she was stabbed 14 times allegedly by one of her male helpers in Quezon City on Sunday afternoon.
The body of Carlota Amio was found in her room at her apartment on Regalado corner Commonwealth Avenues in Barangay Greater Fairview by the caretaker who had to force the front door open.
Beside her was the kitchen knife that had been used to kill her.
Inspector Elmer Monsalve, homicide section chief of the Quezon City Police District, said that they were looking for a certain Bingot, one of the victim’s three male helpers who had been working for her for nearly a month.
Monsalve said the victim was found dead at 5:20 p.m. on Sunday in her room on the second floor.
According to him, the victim shared the apartment with her three children and the three houseboys—Bingot and two others identified only as Allan and Junior—who had a room of their own.
The three men were her helpers in her coconut business and had been working for her for nearly a month.
Police said the victim may have struggled against her attacker because they found torn pieces of skin beneath her fingernails, indicating that she had scratched him.
Monsalve said they initially suspected that robbery was the motive since the victim’s room had been ransacked and her cell phones, laptop and cash were missing.
When authorities inspected the room of the male helpers, they found a red shirt and a pair of brown checkered shorts covered in blood.
At the time of the murder, only Amio and Bingot were in the apartment as the victim’s daughters were in Mindoro while her son was with the two other houseboys in her coconut shop.
Witnesses told the police that on Sunday afternoon, they heard a commotion inside the victim’s apartment although they took no notice of it.
After several minutes, they said they saw Bingot leaving the house with a backpack and a bag.
When they asked him where he was going, he told them that the victim wanted to leave because the air-conditioning unit in her room was not working.
He left and after several minutes, Allan arrived and witnesses said he immediately started shouting that someone had killed his employer.
Allan, however, also fled and the caretaker of the apartment, Allan Gonzales, had to force open the door to the house.