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OLONGAPO
CITY—Four
persons, including a magazine model and Viva Films
contract star, were found dead in a burned apartment
here at dawn Thursday.
The
fatalities, all of whom bore gunshot wounds, were found
in a rented apartment on
Acacia Street,
Gordon
Heights.
Police
identified the victims as Jorge Vitug Castor, 27, Vaughn
Mark Bandehas, 20, Rachel Estacio, 20, and Scarlet
Garcia, 23.
Garcia,
a Viva hot babe, was the cousin of Estacio.
The two
men were found in the sala of the apartment tied with
nylon cord while the women were found in the toilet.
The
apartment was ransacked, with the victims’ belongings
strewn all over the floor, the furniture overturned and
clothes scattered even in the hallway.
Police
said the assailants used caliber .45 and 9mm pistols, as
evidenced by the recovered empty shells and slugs in the
crime scene.
Recovered were three .45 slugs, a 9mm slug and five .45
empty shells.
Former Gordon Heights
barangay captain Damian de los Santos, whose house is
located just across the street from the victims’
apartment, said that about 2:00 a.m., the neighborhood
was awakened by a loud car alarm.
De los
Santos said he went out and saw nothing out of the
ordinary, except two men who seemed to be unloading some
things from the trunk of a Toyota Vios parked in front
of the victims’ apartment.
De los
Santos said he only had a good look at one of the men,
because the other was standing in the shadows. The man
that he saw was in his early 40s or late 30s, of medium
build and height. The two men were transferring things
from the trunk of the Toyota Vios to another car, a blue
Mitsubishi Lancer, parked in front of the apartment.
He said
that by the time he went out, the car alarm had stopped
and he presumed that the men had the key, since they
were able to open the trunk.
“So, I
didn’t think anything was wrong.”
At about
3:00 a.m., de los Santos said, the neighborhood was
again awakened, this time by a man on a scooter warning
of a fire.
Seeing
the inside of the victims’ apartment ablaze, de los
Santos called the local fire brigade that quickly put
out the fire.
The
bodies were found soon after the arrival of the
firefighters.
Police
arson investigators later recovered a punctured butane
container and a lighter.
Senior
Supt. Abelardo Villacorta of the local police, who is
supervising the investigation, said the killers
apparently tried to burn down the entire apartment, but
were unsuccessful, because the structure was made of
strong materials.
Villacorta said investigators are eyeing several angles,
including robbery and personal motives.
Villacorta said: “We are pursuing several leads. Empty
shells and slugs were recovered inside the apartment, so
we can trace if the guns the killers used were
registered.”
When
asked about the National Police decal attached to the
windshield of the Toyota Vios owned by one of the
victims, Castor, that was parked in front of the
apartment, Villacorta said, “It’s easy to get one of
those things. They are sold everywhere.”
Castor
was reportedly engaged in the sale of used vehicles.
On the
other hand, police said Garcia was an FHM magazine model
and a Viva Films contract star, who was to join the Viva
Hot Babes. Her cousin Estacio was a nursing student at
Fatima College.
Bandehas, the fourth victim, was Estacio’s boyfriend.
Olongapo
Mayor James Gordon Jr., who went to the crime scene,
vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
“This
never happened in Olongapo before. I will exert every
effort to help the police in tracking the assailants,”
Gordon said. |
