A 2-year-old boy was raped and then stabbed to death in Muntinlupa on Saturday by his own uncle, who was allegedly a user of illegal drugs.
A security guard found an abandoned duffle bag containing the lifeless body of the kid wrapped in white linen at the motorcycle parking area of South Station in Barangay Alabang around at around 3 p.m.
Police arrested the suspect, Edgardo Mendoza, who at first claimed he lost his nephew at the bus station but later admitted on killing him.
When Muntinlupa police were investigating the crime scene, the 29-year-old Mendoza claimed he was with the victim, according to a report submitted to Chief Supt. Tomas Apolinario Jr., chief of the Southern Police District (SPD).
The uncle earlier told police he lost the 2-year-old kid when he asked a female stranger to look after the boy while he went to the toilet. Mendoza, however, said he couldn’t find them afterwards.
But police grew suspicious of the man when they noticed blood stains and paint marks on his pants.
Mendoza, brother of the boy’s mother, later confessed to killing the boy.
In his statement to police, Mendoza said the parents allowed him to take their 2-year-old son for a stroll from their home in a subdivision in Alabang.
But instead, he brought the boy to a motel also in Alabang. Mendoza said he made the boy drink a glass of milk laced with textile paint.
The suspect also admitted raping the kid anally before stabbing his body several times.
Mendoza said he went to South Station to board a bus and dispose of the body hidden in a bag in Manila Bay near Baclaran in Parañaque.
The security guard said the bus conductor, however, did not allow him to board with the duffle bag. Mendoza then decided to leave the bag near a parked jeepney in the bus station.
The mother and grandparents identified the body of the kid. They also confirmed that Mendoza was an uncle of the victim.
The mother told police her suspect brother was “once a user of illegal drugs and had a history of deranged mind.”
Police were preparing to file rape and murder charges against Mendoza, who is now detained at Muntinlupa City Police Station. /atm