Drugs, abuse eyed in death of hotel manager

FIVE days after her death, the police have yet to determine what killed a 26-year-old hotel assistant manager who was rushed unconscious to the hospital on Friday morning after locking herself up in a room with her live-in partner and three other men.

Senior Supt. Ariel Andrade, Parañaque police chief, said on Tuesday that they were still waiting for the autopsy report on Edgel Jhoy Durolfo, VIP Premium Services assistant manager at Solaire Resort and Casino. She died at San Juan de Dios Hospital in Pasay City shortly after she was brought there around 4 a.m. on Friday by her partner, Rodney Ynchausti, and three other men identified only as “Pau Egoc,” “Molo Hwang” and “Beah Lim.”

Based on the initial investigation conducted by the police, the victim had bruises and contusions, leading to speculation that she may have been beaten up. Her parents also reported to investigators that Ynchausti had told them that their daughter had used drugs before she died.

“So far, we are still investigating. We can’t say yet what the cause of her death was; if it was hematoma or if there was a drug overdose since she was unconscious [when she was taken to the hospital],” Andrade said.

According to him, part of the footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera at the hotel showed Durolfo entering a room on the hotel’s eighth floor with four men around Thursday midnight.

Four hours later, the men were seen carrying the victim who appeared to be unconscious out of the room.

“It appears she was taken to the hotel clinic first and then they were advised to go to the hospital,” Andrade said, adding that it was Durolfo’s sister, Ethel, who identified the four men.

“When we were told about the incident, we went to the hospital but we did not see the four men there anymore,” Andrade told the Inquirer.

He said they considered Ynchausti and his three companions “persons of interest,” since they “may have [had] something to do with what happened.”

Andrade reported that police investigators went to Ynchausti’s house in BF Las Piñas on Monday but failed to find him there. He said they were also trying to find his three companions.

In a statement on Tuesday, Solaire said it was greatly saddened by Durolfo’s death as it extended its heartfelt sympathy to the family of the hotel’s “team member.”

“The family has requested total privacy and does not want us to discuss further details so we must be guided accordingly,” it added, noting that authorities were already conducting an “exhaustive investigation.”

“Until the investigation has been completed, the hotel’s management shall continue to give it maximum priority. The management of Solaire is extending assistance to the family at this hour of need,” it said.