Murder suspect says a voice told him to kill neighbor

MANILA, Philippines — A man was arrested on Tuesday, almost 24 hours after he stabbed his female neighbor dead in Caloocan City.

Jay Ar Malano, 21, was captured by the police at 2 a.m. with the help of a relative. During questioning, he confessed to killing Florinda de Villion, 41, after a voice told him to “finish her off.”

Police Capt. Herson Manegdeg of the Caloocan Police Community Precinct 2 said that the victim was taking a bath in her house around 10 a.m. on Monday when the suspect barged inside and stabbed her several times in the chest.

Investigators later recovered the handle of a kitchen knife supposedly used by the suspect but failed to find the blade.

Other neighbors reported hearing De Villion shouting for help and begging Malano to “do anything but murder her” because she had to take care of her child.

Nobody, however, saw the suspect leaving the victim’s house.

It was only between 7:30 and 8 p.m. that the victim’s father, Benjamin, noticed that she had failed to drop by his house on her way to work that morning.

When he went to her house on Laon Laan Street, he found her body. —Meg Adonis