BAGUIO CITY – A 26-year old taxi driver died after he allegedly hanged himself inside the shower room of a lodge along Marcos highway Sunday afternoon.
The suicide incident was allegedly proceeded by a reported rape incident wherein the suicide victim reportedly raped a Japanese national inside the same lodge before allowing her to move out.
Senior Superintendent George D. Daskeo, acting city director of the Baguio city Police Office (BCPO), identified the alleged suicide victim as Ferdinand S. Pasuli, Jr., 26, married, taxi driver and a resident of Central Ambiong, La Trinidad, Benguet.
Initial police investigation showed the victim, Hiromi Nakamura, 21, single, student and a resident of Chapiz Village, Bakakeng Central, Baguio City, together with his male companion, Yusuke Tanabe, boarded the taxi driven by Pasuli and first brought Tanabe to Gibraltar.
When Nakamura asked the taxi driver to bring her to Chapiz Village, he allegedly brought her to different places in the city and he tried to kiss and caress her several times before being able to bring her to the aforesaid lodge where he raped her four times.
The victim had a chance to escape from the hands of the taxi driver and sought the assistance of her friends who accompanied her to BCPO Station No. 5 but the case was later referred to BCPO Station No. 10 which had the jurisdiction of the place of incident.
When police operatives responded to the lodge, they saw the taxi parked in the garage and when they tried to forcibly open the room where the victim was allegedly raped, they found no one inside. The responding police operatives then tried to pen the comfort room of the establishment and found the lifeless body of the victim hanging on the shower pipe with two black shoe laces tied around his neck with the other end tied on the shower pipe.
The victim was subjected to medico legal examination while the autopsy on the victim’s body will be decided upon by the members of his family.
By Dexter A. See
