Suspect in urn theft yields: ‘They told me to steal ashes to replace Pipie’s‘

Interior of the Cruz family mausoleum at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque. (Photo courtesy of the Cruz family)

One of the three suspects in the theft of an urn containing the ashes of Maria Pilar Cruz at Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque last week surrendered to authorities on the night of the slain woman’s 50th birthday.

Dioniso Layson, a 30-year-old former caretaker of Manila Memorial Park, turned himself in to the police and Barangay BF Homes officials at 11:30 p.m. Friday (March 9), saying that his conscience bothered him, according to PO3 Rolly Iglesias of the Parañaque police investigation unit.

In an interview with Inquirer, Layson said he was not among the robbers who broke into the mausoleum of the Cruz family inside the private cemetery.

He pointed to his two neighbors, Loui Alday and a certain Marvin, who went to his house at Clinic Ville around noon of March and told him to sell two metal urns for P1,900.

Clinic Ville is a community beside the cemetery.

Layson said Alday was also a former caretaker of Manila Memorial but was “banned more than a year ago” for unknown reasons.

Alday and Marvin remain at large.

Maria Pilar Cruz (Photo courtesy of the Cruz family)

Layson stopped working at the cemetery two weeks ago after the owner of the grave he was supposed to take care of complained of his negligence. He allegedly let the gravestone of his ward get dirty with wheel marks during an interment at a nearby grave.

“When they gave me the urns, they were both already empty,” Layson recalled, noting that the two were “already light and had the same weight.”

The Cruz family learned from the Manila Memorial Park security that the glass window of their mausoleum was found open around 2 a.m. on March 4.

When the family checked it, they discovered that two urns were already missing. One of the urns was gold-plated and contained the ashes of Pipie, as the family fondly called Maria Pilar. The other urn was empty.

The suspects left behind a screwdriver.

Layson said he sold the urns at a junkshop in Barangat CAA in Las Piñas and immediately returned to the suspects.

They kept the P1,500 and gave him P400 in exchange for his services.

According to Layson, he only learned that the two urns were stolen after watching it on the news starting Tuesday.

Alday and Marvin arrived at Layson’s house again on Friday afternoon. He asked them what happened to the ashes.

“They didn’t tell me anything,” Layson said. “Instead, they even asked me to steal someone’s ashes and tell everyone that those were the ashes inside the urn they had stolen. They want me to become the fall guy.”

“But I didn’t do it because my conscience bothered me,” he added. “I pity the family after learning about the owner of the ashes.”

Layson is detained at Parañaque City Police Station.

Layson apologized to the Cruz family, saying he didn’t know the urns were stolen.

He said he would cooperate with the police and the Cruz family to ensure arrest the other two suspects and find the missing ashes.

The family expressed hope that the ashes would be returned in time for Pipie 50th birthday on Friday, March 9.

READ: Urn with woman’s ashes stolen from cemetery in Parañaque

Pipie, a 35-year-old bank analyst based in New York, was found dead after missing for 10 months since April 2003.

Her body was found stuffed in a suitcase that was buried under a concrete flooring in a garage of a house in Newark, New Jersey on Feb. 18, 2004.

Her story became one of the top news in United States.

Police said she died of an anesthesia overdose during a botched operation by quack doctor Dean Faiello. /atm