Lawmen question 4 on Bulacan massacre

ANGUISH Dexter Carlos Jr., a bank security guard, punches a concrete wall in anguish after discovering that his wife, three children and mother-in-law were killed in their own house in the City of San Jose del Monte in Bulacan province. —EDWIN BACASMAS

CITY OF MALOLOS — Police investigators have been interviewing people who have access to a house in the City of San Jose del Monte where three children and their mother and grandmother were murdered on Tuesday.

Bank security guard Dexter Carlos Jr. found five members of his family dead from stabbing inside their house at North Ridge Royal Subdivision.

Four people, described as neighbors and tricycle drivers, had been classified as “persons of interest” because they frequented the Carlos house to buy tap water, said Supt. Fitz Macariola, city police chief.

Carlos’ wife, Estrella, 35, sold to their neighbors tap water taken from a faucet at the front yard of their house in Barangay Sto. Cristo, Macariola said.

According to him, the persons of interest were being investigated because they were known to the victims and had been invited into the Carlos home.

Carlos said his wife never talked about people in the community who may have been paying her extra attention. But on several occasions, he said, he took note of a neighbor who seemed to be attracted to his wife. This neighbor was among those now undergoing interrogation, police said.

Carlos had returned from work at a bank in Makati City early on Tuesday when he found his mother-in-law, Aurora, dead and partly naked inside the house.

He found Estrella naked outside the house. His three children – Donny, 11, Ella, 7 and Dexter Jr., 1 — were found dead in a room.

Macariola said he had yet to receive the results of forensic examination of the crime scene and the autopsy reports.

San Jose del Monte Mayor Arthur Robes and his wife, Bulacan Rep. Florida Robes, shouldered the expenses of the wake for the victims at a neighborhood basketball court, Carlos said.

The mayor and Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado also put up a P100,000-reward for information that would help shed light on the murders.

Speaking earlier to Radyo Inquirer, Macariola said the persons of interest had not been detained but had been asked to cooperate in the investigation.

“In a case where rape may have been committed and children were murdered, only a drug addict or an insane person could have done that,” he said. —Carmela Reyes-Estrope