6 dead in Negros Oriental family ‘massacre’

INQUIRER VISAYAS

DUMAGUETE CITY–Six people, including an eight-year-old child, were found dead in what appeared to be a massacre by a family member who killed himself afterwards inside their home in a remote area in Tayasan town, Negros Oriental.

Senior Supt. Henry Biñas, Negros Oriental police director, said the crime scene at Sitio Mabigo, Barangay (village) Lag-it, Tayasan was in the hinterlands on the border of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental with hardly clear telecommunications signal that they could not immediately get the details of the incident.

Initial reports reaching the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office on Saturday identified the fatalities  as Leovicita Guillepa, 48; Felisa Amihoy, 60;  Walbet Amihoy, 40; Dikoy Amihoy, 20; Marilou Goles, 14; Rea Mae Dagohoy Guillepa, 8–all related by affinity or consanguinity.

Biñas said the victims died from hack and stab wounds, apparently inflicted by only one weapon which was found near one of the dead, Walbet, suspected of killing the five others.

Police investigation showed that Walbet appeared distraught and was acting strange after his stepfather, Junior Goles, died and was buried on February 16.

Prior to that, Walbet was already restless, was not eating at all and was carrying a knife with him, which later turned out to be the same knife found at his side when police found him dead, along with the others.

Walbet kept saying that somebody was out to kill him, according to the police.

Scene of Crime Operatives (SOCO) who proceeded to the crime scene, which is about ten hours away from Tayasan proper and situated in a forested area, reported that based on their investigation, the wounds on the dead appear to be caused by the knife that Walbet  carried, said Biñas.

The wounds and the size of the knife matched, he added.

Police said  Benjamin Bartolo, a neighbor, heard a woman screaming around 1 a.m. Friday.

Hours later, Judito Ludivice went to the house of the victims to see Dikoy Amihoy to tell him to bring his cow to a market in Nalundan, Bindoy town.

But nobody answered when he knocked on the door, prompting Ludivice to peep through a gap in the house.

He then saw the bloodied body of a woman sprawled on the floor. Ludivice immediately alerted his neighbors and called the police.

Responding policemen found the door to the house locked and had to pry it open.

It turned out that the door was nailed from the inside, giving them reason to believe that the crime was perpetrated by Walbet, Biñas added.

Biñas said that based on police investigation, there were no signs of forced entry that would tell another suspect was involved and that there was a different motive for the killings. CDG