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FIRST PERSON: A Study in Scarlet: A burned car, double murder in Nueva Ecija
A scarlet car. Scorched in broad daylight.
That’s the gruesome double murder scene I covered in Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija.
I encounter these crime sites when I read Sherlock Holmes or watch Detective Conan. But it’s different experiencing them with one’s own senses.
There is still the smell of burned car parts even if days have passed since March 9 when the crime happened.
The location is remote. But it was a blessing that there was a CCTV camera nearby that the gunman overlooked.
The footage shows the suspect committing the crime. He brutally shot the two victims in the head and then burned the car while the engine is still on. The police has the footage.
The gunman is still at large but authorities have captured the woman believed to be the principal suspect and mastermind.
Technology helped solve the case. Before the crime, the female victim took a selfie inside the car and sent it to her husband in America as an update. The photo shows the principal suspect in the backseat with another man alleged as the gunman.
A chilling photo capturing the last moments of the victims alive in the car with their suspected killers.
One of the motives under investigation is a personal grudge involving a debt.
The other male victim is a family friend who was requested to drive during that day. The female victim’s brother couldn’t accompany her that day. According to the brother, the victim and the principal suspect were going to meet for a real estate transaction.
The police tracked the mastermind in Isabela with three other accessories to the crime. Another suspect who drove the gunman’s getaway tricycle has been apprehended as well.
The police are conducting follow-up operations because the gunman has been identified.
The victims have both been buried by their grieving families. — BM, GMA Integrated News
