BAGUIO CITY – A 44-year old driver was arrested by combined police operatives after he allegedly stabbed to death a 25-year old woman inside a lodge along Marcos highway, Bakakeng Central here Thursday morning.
Senior Superintendent George Daskeo, officer-in-charge of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), identified the arrested homicide suspect as Romeo Palitayan Vibal, 44, married, driver and a resident of No. 315-B Purok 3, Poliwes, Baguio City, while he named the victim as Mercy Daguyen Mapili, 25, married and a resident of Sal-angan, Camp 6, Tuba, Benguet.
It can be recalled that concerned security guards of the Nova Lodge reported to BCPO Station No. 10 a found dead female person inside a room of the establishment that was wrapped with clothings and had multiple stab wounds on the different parts of her body.
Initial police investigation showed that the victim, together with the alleged suspect, checked in the said lodge at around 4:22 am of January 13, 2016 and her lifeless body was discovered by employees and security guards at around 3:55 pm Thursday.
Elements of the Scene Crime Operation (SOCO) team are currently conducting the necessary autopsy on the victim’s body to determine the number of stab wounds inflicted by the suspect on her.
The suspect is now detained at the BCPO headquarters awaiting the filing of homicide charges against him before the city prosecutor’s office.
By Dexter A. See
