Man surrenders to police, admits to triple homicide in Manila hotel
The suspect in the killings of two Australians and their Filipina companion at a hotel in the Philippines has surrendered, officials say.
A suspect in the killing of two Australian nationals and a Filipino arranges his face mask as he is presented to reporters following his surrender in Tagaytay city, Cavite province Philippines on Wednesday, July 17, 2024. A hotel worker found the bodies of three victims, whose hands and feet were tied, on July 10 in a room at a hotel in the popular resort of Tagaytay city, south of Manila. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Police said the man was a former hotel pool cleaner who had wanted to get revenge for his dismissal.
The victims, whose hands and feet were tied, were found sprawled on the floor in a room at the Lake Hotel in Tagaytay, a popular resort city south of Manila, a week ago.
Tagaytay police chief Charles Daven Capagcuan said the breakthrough in the case came when the suspect was identified by at least three hotel employees based on his image captured by security cameras showing a part of his masked face.
The identification eventually led authorities to the suspect’s home province of Batangas near Tagaytay, where he decided to surrender on Tuesday, Capagcuan told The Associated Press.
Tagaytay Mayor Abraham Tolentino and Capagcuan presented the handcuffed suspect, wearing a hoodie, dark eyeglasses and a face mask, at a news conference. The man’s name was not announced.
The mayor repeated his apology to the relatives of the victims and to Australia for the “brutal crimes” that took place in his city.
“He wanted to get back at the hotel management for his dismissal,” Capagcuan told reporters, adding the suspect used to work as a swimming pool cleaner at the hotel.
Officials planned to file criminal complaints of robbery in addition to the killings against the suspect, who allegedly acknowledged he took the watch and shoes of the Australian man after attacking him with a knife and suffocating his partner, and her Filipina daughter-in-law, Capagcuan said.
The woman and her daughter-in-law will be buried in their family’s home province in the Philippines while the remains of the Australian man were flown on Tuesday to Sydney, Tolentino said.
The Australian couple was supposed to fly back to Australia on July 10, the day they were killed, but decided to briefly take a holiday in Tagaytay, a family member previously said.
Tagaytay, about 60km south of Manila, is popular among local and foreign tourists who flock there for its cool weather and to view one of the world’s smallest active volcanos nestled in the middle of a lake.
