Death came after ‘ecstasy fix’

The live-in partner of Edgel Joy Durolfo, the 26-year-old Solaire Resort and Casino assistant manager who died in the hospital on Friday under mysterious circumstances, has said that she took an ecstasy pill before her death.

In a seven-page statement he gave to Solaire’s security investigation office which invited him for questioning on Wednesday, Rodney Ynchausti, 27, claimed that it was the victim—whom he referred to as his fiancee—who bought the drugs and reserved a room in the Parañaque City hotel for their “get-together” on Feb. 25.

According to Ynchausti, who said he used to work in the hotel before he became a medical representative for a pharmaceutical firm, he and Durolfo, together with their friends Josiebell Bea Lim Uy, Molo Hwang and Paulo Egoc, each took a pill shortly after Hwang joined them at 10:45 p.m.

He added that he had a talk with Durolfo about their relationship and “our feelings toward each other, and our plans [for] the future…”

“Thereafter, (Durolfo) was dancing and rolling (on) the floor while saying repeatedly in the vernacular, ‘Ang taas ko,’” Ynchausti said in his statement.

He added that he later saw her lying face down on the bed so he turned her around and she told him: “Let me be. I want to die.” When he asked her why, she stared at him so he hugged her.

‘Babe, I can’t breathe’

“After a while, (Durolfo) said to me, ‘Babe, I can’t breathe’,” so he loosened her upper garment and placed her in a reclined position.  He also gave her water “while constantly asking her if she was okay, and she nodded while she was breathing heavily.”

Ynchausti added that he tried to bring her to the clinic with Uy, Hwang and Egoc but Hwang said that the victim was too heavy and they could be seen by hotel employees so they took her back into the room.

Ynchausti then claimed he and Uy gave Durolfo a bath, “thinking it would help her breathe.” After a change of clothes, he placed her on the bed, saying that at that time, she was still responsive.

However, he said he noticed that her nails had turned dark so he and Egoc took her to the hotel clinic with the help of hotel security guards. He added that the doctor on duty examined the victim and advised him to bring her to a hospital.

Asked why Durolfo’s face was covered in a cloth as they took her down using the elevator, Ynchausti replied: “I can no longer remember.”

He said that at the hospital, he called up Durolfo’s mother to inform her about her daughter’s condition. Her parents later arrived around 9 a.m. on Feb. 26 at the hospital where a doctor told them the victim needed to be confined in the intensive care unit. Based on the initial police investigation, Durolfo was brought to the hospital around five hours earlier.

According to Ynchausti, he and Durolfo had taken ecstasy pills during three parties, two of these held in the hotel, the first one being on Feb. 15.

Asked why he went into hiding after Friday, he said he got scared after a confrontation with Durolfo’s father and when he saw news reports that he would be charged with her murder.

Statement has no weight

Parañaque police chief Senior Supt. Ariel Andrade earlier told the Inquirer that Ynchausti’s statement had no weight since he did not sign it. “Also, the statement was taken by Solaire investigation personnel, not the police,” he added.

Andrade said that they have yet to hear from Ynchausti himself after policemen failed to find him in his house at BF Las Piñas. Their next move, however, would depend on the results of the victim’s autopsy report which was expected to be released today.

“So if there was foul play based on the report, we file the necessary charges. But as of now, we don’t even know if a crime was indeed committed,” he said.

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