A man suspected of killing an Australian husband and wife in the Philippines was an ex-employee of the hotel where their bodies were found, local police say.
The bodies of David Fisk, 57, Lucita Cortez, 55, and her daughter-in-law Mary Jane Cortez, 30, were found by cleaning staff last Wednesday at Lake Hotel in Tagaytay.
The bodies had their hands and feet tied.
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CCTV had shown a male suspected to be involved with their deaths, leaving and re-entering the trio’s shared room.
He was wearing a mask and a hoodie and carrying a sling bag.
Now, a man has handed himself in to local police, local officials confirmed.
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Tagaytay police chief Charles Daven Capagcuan told The Associated Press that the breakthrough in the case came when the suspect was identified by at least three hotel employees based on his image captured by security cameras showing a part of his masked face.
The identification eventually led authorities to the suspect’s home province of Batangas near Tagaytay, where he decided to surrender on Tuesday, Capagcuan said.
Tagaytay city Mayor Abraham Tolentino and Capagcuan presented the handcuffed suspect, wearing a hoodie, dark eyeglasses and a face mask, at a news conference. The man’s name was not announced.
The mayor repeated his apology to the relatives of the victims and to Australia for the “brutal crimes” that took place in his city.
“He wanted to get back at the hotel management for his dismissal,” Capagcuan told reporters, adding that the suspect used to work as a swimming pool cleaner at the hotel.
Officials planned to file criminal complaints of robbery in addition to the killings against the suspect, who allegedly acknowledged he took the watch and shoes of David Fisk after attacking him with a knife and suffocating the two women, Capagcuan said.
Fisk’s family, based in NSW’s Sutherland Shire, earlier issued a statement saying they “pray for answers and the truth in this horrific matter”.
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“The love we have for our father and Lucita is so dear and this situation is like living a nightmare,” the family said.
They asked for their privacy to be respected.
It’s understood the Australian couple had been on an overseas trip and were due to fly home on July 13.
With Associated Press.
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