Hotel exec’s fiancé insists on innocence

YNCHAUSTI

IN HIS first appearance at the Parañaque Prosecutor’s Office on Monday, the prime suspect in the death of Solaire hotel officer Edgel Joy Durolfo maintained his innocence and said that what happened to her was an accident.

Rodney Ynchausti, Durolfo’s fiancé, also told reporters that he loved her very much and they had made plans to get married next year.

Ynchausti, along with two other suspects, Josiebell Uy and Molo Hwang, showed up at the prosecutor’s office to submit their counteraffidavits during the preliminary investigation into the murder charges against them. The fourth suspect, Paul Egoc, had filed his counteraffidavit earlier.

“All four of us did not commit a crime. It was an accident,” Ynchausti said. He had repeatedly said the victim earlier complained of difficulty in breathing after taking an ecstasy pill, prompting him and the others to bring her to the hotel doctor who advised them to bring her to the hospital.

Durolfo was pronounced dead in the hospital on Feb. 26, hours after she and the suspects had a drug-fueled get-together inside a room at Solaire Resort and Casino. All four suspects were charged with murder based on autopsy results showing that the 26-year-old victim had sustained contusions and hematomas with the cause of death listed as “asphyxia by manual strangulation.”

“Until now, I am still grieving because of Joy’s death. Her family knows how much I love her,” he said. When questioned by reporters, he repeatedly asked his lawyer if it was OK for him to give a reply.

Asked if he had any message for Durolfo’s family, Ynchausti said he was sorry over what happened although he stressed that he and the other suspects did not have a hand in the victim’s death. “We were also shocked by her death,” he added.

In his 13-page affidavit, Ynchausti said that he did not murder his fiancée because they never had a fight or a misunderstanding before she died. “I love Joy and we were on good terms the day of the incident and days prior. I do not even remember any major fight in our relationship,” he stressed.

Ynchausti also shared that he and Durolfo had “seriously talked about marriage.” “I proposed to her in December last year and she accepted it,” he said, noting that they had planned to get married in Tagaytay in 2017.

He also explained that Durolfo’s death was an accident caused by the ecstasy pill she took. According to him, doctors he had consulted described her condition as disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).

An online check showed that DIC, a rare, life-threatening condition, causes excessive blood clotting which can reduce blood flow or prevent it from reaching other organs.

According to Ynchausti, Durolfo was the one who had asked for ecstasy pills from Egoc, a day before their get-together at the hotel.

He added that it would also be impossible for Durolfo to die due to manual strangulation since no one in their group had hurt her that night. Ynchausti said that doctors had told him that a person could die from manual strangulation within eight minutes at the most.

“Joy did not die in Solaire. She died around 2 p.m. when she was already in San Juan de Dios Hospital,” he pointed out in his affidavit.

Angelo Niño Santos, the lawyer of Durolfo’s mother, Evangel, said they had already expected Ynchausti and the three other accused to deny the charges against them.

“Even if they deny it, the evidence says otherwise. The death certificate of Edgel Joy showed that she died of asphyxia by manual strangulation which equated to murder because there were four other people inside the room,” Santos said.