Woman dies from over 20 stab wounds after fight with boyfriend

MANILA, Philippines — With a kitchen knife lodged deep inside her throat, a 23-year-old Kimberly was found dead by her family inside her room in Tondo, Manila, on Monday morning.

The knife sticking out from her mouth was said to have been embedded by her live-in partner Dennis Ryan Pangan, 24, a service crew at Jollibee Avenida, after the two figured in a fight inside their home at 2118 F. Almeda St., Tondo.

Aside from her mouth wound, which ripped through the back of her throat, Hernandez sustained more than 20 stab wounds on her face and neck, Senior Police Officer 3 Glenzor Vallejo told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Investigators said that at 12:30 a.m. when the victim went home from a drinking session with her sister and a friend, neighbors heard shouting from the couple’s house.

They told the police that they did not mind the fight because they thought it was just a normal lover’s quarrel. But they became suspicious when all of a sudden, everything went quiet.

Hernandez’s sister, Daniella found the victim in a pool of her own blood at around 1 a.m. when she went up to her sister’s room to return the DVD player and speaker they used for their drinking session.

Joel Sarmiento, a friend of the couple, saw Pangan carrying a backpack and running very fast in an alley a few blocks away from the crime scene. Sarmiento was able to alert village watchmen in the area about the escaping suspect, whom he first thought actually robbed a house in the area.

Responding village officers were able to catch the suspect at a nearby barangay three hours after the killing. But Pangan repeatedly denied killing Hernandez, saying someone else who had a grudge on her partner stabbed her to death.

“Despite a witness seeing him running away from the crime scene, Pangan still blatantly denies killing his partner,” Vallejo told the Inquirer.

The police officer added that when the suspect was turned over to the Manila Police District office in Ermita, Manila, they found blood stains at the lower back portion of his shirt.

“He also had bite and scratch marks on his arms which we already had checked,” the police officer added.

Friends of the couple told the police that the two had been constantly fighting for the past months because Hernandez twice caught Pangan with another woman.

The police said they were informed that the victim wanted to end their relationship because of the suspect’s infidelity but the latter did not agree to a break-up.