String of minor errors did suspects in

It was a string of minor errors committed by the suspects in the murder of part-time model Julie Ann Rodelas that provided the police with the break they needed to solve the case.

“If the suspects had eaten that McDonald’s takeout [meal] instead of giving it to the victim, then things may have taken longer to figure out,” Insp. Elmer Monsalve, homicide section chief of the Quezon City Police District, told the Inquirer yesterday.

When Rodelas’ body was found on 18th Avenue in Cubao, Quezon City, she was clutching a plastic bag containing a burger and a receipt issued by the fastfood restaurant.

The receipt issued by the McDonalds’ UN Avenue branch at 2:33 a.m. of Nov. 6—just a few hours before the discovery of the victim’s body—was the first clue pursued by case investigator PO2 Jogene Hernandez.

First break

Hernandez’s first move was to ask the restaurant if it had any footage taken by its closed circuit television camera to help them determine the identity of the person who bought the burger.

That man later turned out to be Fernando Quiambao Jr., the boyfriend of Althea Altamirano, a model who was a friend of the victim.

Police investigation showed that the victim was abducted in Pasay City by Quiambao and his cohorts and later on killed in Quezon City because Altamirano held a grudge against her. Quiambao had offered to teach the victim a lesson.

Based on the statement issued by Jaymar Waradji, initially considered a suspect until he offered to testify against Quiambao and Altamirano, the burger was first given to him.

Waradji, however, used the food as an excuse to check on Rodelas who was being watched by a man identified only as Aldos in a room inside the group’s safehouse in Salaam Compound, Barangay Culiat.

Aldos then passed on the burger to the victim but she said she would eat it after they took her home.

The telltale receipt was eventually found in her left hand, becoming the first clue to solving the puzzle, said Monsalve.

“That was their first mistake. The suspects should have eaten it when the burger was given to them,” the official added.

Quoting his conversation with Waradji, Monsalve said the suspects seemed to have no appetite at that time because they were high on drugs.

Because of the receipt, police were able to zero in on Quiambao who was shown buying the meal at that time.

The second error committed by the suspects, according to Monsalve, was Quiambao’s failure to conceal his face, maybe by wearing a cap, while he was at the fastfood restaurant to prevent him from being identified through the CCTV footage.

Monsalve pointed out that Waradji’s confession—from the time the plot to kidnap Rodelas was hatched to the time she was taken out of the safehouse and killed—filled in what the police had yet to determine in their investigation.

He added that because the suspects were high on dangerous drugs, their condition clouded their judgment and subsequent actions.

“If you will recall, they killed Jaja (the victim’s nickname) and dumped her at past dawn. It was not smart. They were in a hurry to get rid of her,” the official explained.

Rodelas was abducted around 12:30 a.m. in Pasay City and brought by Quiambao and his cohorts in a black Mitsubishi Montero to the safe house in Quezon City shortly after.

Monsalve noted that it was only several hours later, around 5 a.m., when she was killed.

Absent mastermind

“They couldn’t kill her in between those hours because Quiambao, their boss, was with [Altamirano] at the Pasay City police station. There was no one to give orders, no vehicle and no driver,” he added.

At that time, Altamirano was taken into police custody after she reported that some men had kidnapped her friend. Quiambao had left the safe house to be with her.

The veteran police homicide investigator likened the murder which was solved in four days to an episode of the popular TV series, “Crime Scene Investigation,” minus the cinematic effects.

“Criminals always think that they can get away with it. But there is no perfect crime,” Monsalve said.