Man found dead inside daughter’s QC home

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MANILA, Philippines—The decomposing body of a 64-year-old man, hogtied and bundled up in a blanket, was found Monday morning inside his daughter’s Quezon City home.

Amador Castro, a buy-and-sell trader, of Barangay (village) Sto. Niño in Galas, also lost P150,000 cash, jewelry and the owner-type jeepney he drove to his daughter Maureen De Venecia’s house in Roxasville, Barangay Pasong Tamo.

Quezon City police investigators are looking into the possibility that the victim knew his killers, pointing out that the manner by which the elderly man had been slain seemed unlikely for gangs who hog-tied their victims.

Insp. Elmer Monsalve, head of the homicide section of the Quezon City Police District Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU), told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, “It is very rare for robbers to strangle to death their victims. Usually if they did kill in a heist, they never hid the body.”

He pointed out that covering the body with the blanket indicated that the killing had been personal, adding that it was also possible that Castro had been hogtied when he was already dead.

Monsalve said that Castro’s body was found at around 8 am Monday by another daughter, Maricar Yanga, inside Maureen’s house, which had been locked up.

According to the homicide section chief, Maricar had grown worried about her father who has not been answering his mobile phone since he left on Sunday to visit Maureen.

Maricar, Monsalve said, knew that her father carried a large sum with him and decided to follow him Monday morning to her sister’s house. “When she got to the house, it seemed there was nobody home because it was all locked up,” he said.

Maricar and her live-in partner Tony Arellano sought the help of barangay security and peace officers to break into the house and find out if the elderly man was inside. They eventually stumbled onto Castro’s bundled corpse inside the bedroom on the second floor bedroom and reported their find to the police.

Monsalve said that Castro had been dead for at least 24 hours when he was found based on the fact that it was in its early stage of decomposition.

The homicide section chief said that when investigators asked Maureen about her father’s death, she said that she and other members of her household had left the elderly man home alone and expressed shock at her father’s death.