At a predawn news conference at City Hall, Tolentino and cops showed up in handcuffs with the suspect, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, dark glasses and a face mask. The man, whose identity was not released, will face criminal charges for murder and robbery, Tagaytay Police Chief Charles Daven Capagcuan said.
“We are pleased to present to you the prime suspect in this brutal crime and, as promised, within a week we will solve the case and bring justice to the victims,” Tolentino said, without providing the names of the victims as their families requested.
In the Southeast Asian country, where many crime suspects evaded arrest for months or years before being caught, Tolentino praised police for quickly identifying and finding a suspect, who was then pressured to show himself in.
Capagcuan said before the news conference that the breakthrough within the case got here when at the very least three hotel employees identified the suspect from his image, which was captured on security cameras, showing a part of his face after his mask had fallen off.
Identification and knowledge from witnesses eventually led authorities to his home region of Batangas, near Tagaytay, where the suspect was reported to have surrendered on Tuesday, the police chief said.
“He wanted to take revenge on the hotel management for his dismissal,” Capagcuan told reporters, adding that the suspect worked as a pool cleaner but was fired from the hotel in March after being linked to an attack in one in all the rooms.
Police officers planned to file a report of a criminal offense of robbery along with the murder of the suspect.
The man admitted to attacking the Australian with a knife, stealing his watch and shoes after which strangling his partner, a Filipina who had turn into an Australian citizen, and her Filipina daughter-in-law, Capagcuan said.
“He entered the room with a knife because the window was open,” Capagcuan said.
He broke into the room with a knife since the window was open.
The Australian couple had planned to return to Australia on July 10, the day they were killed, but decided to take a brief vacation to Tagaytay, the Filipino son of the slain Australian-Filipino woman told reporters. He spoke on condition of anonymity last week because he feared what had happened to his mother and wife and since the suspect was at large on the time.
During the press conference, the son, who was still hiding his identity under a white face mask and a sports cap, thanked the police and the mayor for quickly locating the suspect. He asked the suspect, who was standing next to him, what had motivated him to commit the gruesome crime, however the man didn’t answer.
