Maid confesses in killing of 2 and stabbing of employer in Laguna

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Philippines — A once trusted house helper is now a suspect in the killing of two people, one of them an infant, and the wounding of her employer in Calamba City, early Wednesday.

Supt. Marvin Saro, chief of the Calamba City police, said a 17-year-old maid was arrested by the police on Wednesday morning after confessing to the crime.

He said the teenager (Inquirer is withholding her identity because she is a minor) initially turned herself in to deny the claims of her employer, Cecilia Sindai, that she stabbed dead Sindai’s eight-month-old adopted son, Mark Daniel, and another househelper, Teresita Beth Torres.

“During the investigation, (the suspect) confessed that she was the one who let the four other suspects inside the house,” Saro said in a phone interview.

The stabbing took place at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday at Sindai’s residence in Barangay (village) Lawa.

Saro said Sindai was sleeping on the second floor while Torres and the infant were in the living room on the first floor.

He said the intruders and teenaged maid, started stabbing the victims.

Sindai was stabbed in the stomach and face and was hit with an iron bar on the head, but she managed to survive by playing dead so her attackers would leave her alone.

Sindai sought help from her neighbors and was rushed to the hospital but Torres and the infant had died.

“The (minor suspect) also named one of the three male suspects as Kevin de Vera, a former family driver of the victims,” Saro said.

The police arrested De Vera in his home in Barangay San Jose, also in the city, before noon.

The police said Sindai’s jewelry and other valuables, including a laptop computer, were missing after the attack.

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