Two crime suspects in separate cases in Quezon City apparently shared something in common: They made it appear that their victims committed suicide.
The Quezon City Police District on Friday filed charges against a murder suspect who first reported that the victim—his own live-in partner—took her own life.
In another case, a 60-year-old man allegedly killed a neighbor, robbed her house, then hanged the body from the ceiling before fleeing with the loot.
A murder complaint against call center agent Patrick Penano, 39, was filed in the city prosecutor’s office a month after his live-in partner, 28-year-old college student Mary Jane Dignos, was found dead hanging in their bedroom.
Insp. Elmer Monsalve, homicide section chief of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said Penano reported the death as a suicide on July 29.
Victim’s pal as witness
Dignos was allegedly hanging, with a necktie for a noose, when found by her partner around 4 a.m. that day. Penano claimed that he tried to revive her before bringing her to East Avenue Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.
He also claimed that they both went to bed around 11 the previous night, and that he did not know of any reason why she would kill herself.
The Dignos case remained in police records as a suicide until a female friend of the victim surfaced a month later. She told authorities that she heard the couple having a fight hours before the alleged suicide at their apartment in Villa Beatriz, Old Balara.
The woman said she went to the apartment to see Dignos because they were planning to go job-hunting together.
In her sworn statement to the police, the witness said: “When I arrived at their place, I heard them fighting because Patrick was jealous of Mary Jane’s former boyfriend, and Patrick threatened to kill Mary Jane.”
She said the couple’s fight scared her that’s why she quickly left the apartment, only to learn hours later that her friend was already dead.
In the second case, police investigators said they saw through the ruse used by Simeon Gianan, 60, who was arrested late Wednesday night for robbing and killing Jacqueline Villareal, 44, his neighbor on Banahaw Street, Barangay San Martin de Porres.
Caught on cam
Gianan became a suspect after a security camera footage obtained by the police showed him coming out of the victim’s residence on the night of Aug. 24, hours before Villareal was found dead inside the house.
Monsalve said the suspect, like in the Dignos case, tried to make it appear that his victim hanged herself.
When found by her husband Garry, Villareal’s body bore signs of foul play, including stab wounds and cuts on her neck and wrists, Monsalve said.
Also missing from the house were a Nokia N8 mobile phone, a Canon camera and a pouch containing P5,000 in cash, the officer noted.
Police said three witnesses later claimed seeing Gianan leaving the house prior to the discovery of the ‘’suicide.”
Gianan underwent inquest proceedings on charges of robbery with homicide on Thursday. The prosecutor recommended no bail.