I’m hooked on drugs, massacre suspect says

Construction worker Carmelino Ibañez is escorted by policemen in Camp Olivas, Pampanga province. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

CAMP OLIVAS, PAMPANGA —There may be no way to justify why a construction worker thrust a knife into a 1-year-old boy five times, and stabbed a 7-year-old girl 19 times, and an 11-year-old boy 15 times.

“Nagsisisi po ako sa ginawa ko, kasi lulong po ako sa droga (I regret what I have done because I am hooked on drugs),” Carmelino Ibañez, 26, said on Thursday when he was presented by the police to the media on the killing of the children and their mother and grandmother at their house in the City of San Jose del Monte early on Tuesday.

Ibañez also admitted stabbing the children’s 35-year-old mother, Estrella Carlos, 45 times, and their 58-year-old grandmother, Aurora Dizon, 32 times.

He also raped the two women, based on findings of the crime laboratory office of the Bulacan provincial police, said Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino, Central Luzon police director.

Ibañez was one of six people interviewed by the police following the massacre of the family of Dexter Carlos, a bank security guard, in his house at North Ridge Royale Subdivision.

Ibañez, a native of Negros Occidental province, admitted the killings in front of his mother and sisters at the San Jose del Monte police office on Wednesday, according to Senior Supt. Romeo Caramat Jr., Bulacan police director.

Aquino said Ibañez made an “extrajudicial confession,” which indicated that he made the admission without a lawyer.

That admission would be used in the murder charges that would be filed against Ibañez, the police director said.

A witness saw Ibañez near the Carlos family house on the day of the murders. More than 30 hours after the killings, Ibañez was arrested by the police on Wednesday night.

On Monday night, Ibañez told police he drank alcohol and took “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) with two friends.

“On his way home [at 3 a.m. on June 27], he passed by the two-story house of Carlos. A whisper prodded [Ibañez] to break into the house,” Aquino said. Ibañez lived just two houses from Carlos’ home.

Ibañez gained entry through the back door. He found Aurora sleeping on the ground floor. Without provocation, he began stabbing her with a kitchen knife, before raping her, Aquino said.

Estrella heard the commotion and rushed downstairs and saw her mother being attacked. She ran out of the house but was pursued by Ibañez, who struck her 45 times with the knife before also raping her.

Estrella’s screams awakened the children—Donny, 11, Ella, 7, and Dexter Jr., 1.—in their room. Ibañez ran upstairs and killed them.

The witness said he saw Ibañez leave the house between 3:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Tuesday “with bloodstains on his hands and still clutching the knife.”

Police recovered the knife about 50 meters away from Ibañez’s house. Carlos later identified the weapon as their missing kitchen knife.

So far, forensic evidence had pointed to Ibañez as the likely culprit, Caramat said, adding that more tests were being conducted to strengthen the case against the construction worker.

Aquino said Ibañez had frequented Carlos’ house to buy tap water, a small business run by the family.