Jealous fit could have led to doc’s slay

Finding out that his lover had a new flame could have driven John Patrick Torres to stab dead a dermatologist right inside his Quezon City home, police said.

Torres, 28, was arrested on Sunday afternoon at a Cubao mall after he was linked to the murder of Russell Fritz Saliganan, 32, last Thursday.

“According to the victim’s friends, ‘Anne’ (the victim’s nickname) apparently wanted out of the relationship because he felt trapped,” homicide section head Insp. Elmer Monsalve said.

Quoting an account of one of the victim’s friends, Monsalve said Saliganan and Torres reportedly quarreled a lot before they broke up because the victim “felt smothered.”

The dermatologist also reportedly met someone new last December that reportedly made Torres jealous.

Saliganan was found with several stab wounds inside his apartment on Batay Street in Barangay (village) Kaunlaran last Jan. 11, according to case investigator PO2 Jogene Hernandez.

Senior Supt. Richard Albano, the new Quezon City Police District chief, said traces of the victim’s blood were seen on the walls of his apartment.

Torres was arrested outside a coffee shop at the Gateway Mall in Cubao after one of Saliganan’s friends texted him on the pretense of meeting with him.

The suspect had a steel knuckle in his right fist, but this did not bear any trace of blood, Hernandez said.