The Quezon City police are now tracking down a man believed to have stabbed dead his companion in a Novaliches hotel early Monday.
The unidentified female victim was found with a lone stab wound on the chest, a little more than an hour after checking in with the unnamed man at the Nova Hotel and Videoke Bar on General Luis St. at the corner of Austria street in Barangay Novaliches Proper.
Based on the statements of the hotel staff, the victim checked in with her male companion for a two-hour stay at around 1:05 a.m., said the case investigator, PO2 Julius Cesar Balbuena of the Quezon City Police District Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU).
But an hour later, the man stepped out alone, carrying his small backpack. When questioned by the staff, he said he was just going out to buy coffee.
The victim was discovered dead in the bathroom of her hotel room at 2:45 a.m. This was after the hotel staff used a duplicate keycard to open her hotel room as she was not responding when the staff knocked on the door to remind her that her checkout time was at 3:05 a.m.
There were blood stains on the bed and on the floor leading to the bathroom. Recovered from the room was a kitchen knife believed to have been the murder weapon, a cigarette stick, a handkerchief, condoms, as well as aluminum foil and a lighter — suspected paraphernalia for “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) use.
Balbuena said he has already requested for a copy of the security camera footage, to help determine the identity of the perpetrator.
The murder comes two days after an 86-year-old man was brutally killed by unidentified companions, also in an apartelle in Novaliches.
Widower Isidro Perez was found with multiple stab wounds all over his body, and a fan knife stuck in his neck, in a room at the Sunrise Lagro apartelle in Barangay Pasong Putik on Saturday, three hours after he checked in with an unidentified woman.
Minutes after the couple checked in, a man claiming to be Perez’ son and claiming he was sent for insisted on joining the couple in their room. The woman and the man then left one after the other an hour later, leaving Perez behind. A police tracker team has been formed to pursue them.
Balbuena said there was no connection seen yet between the two killings.
(With reports from Jinky Cabildo and Veronica Roque, trainees)