3 SUSPECTS IN MURDER OF POLICEWOMAN, 8-YEAR-OLD SON ARRESTED IN QUEZON CITY

THREE suspects in the gruesome killing of a policewoman and her 8-year-old son on Friday night were arrested in Quezon City.

Operatives of the Quezon City Police District captured the three suspects following a series of investigations in the murder of Police Senior Master Sergeant Diana Marie Mollenido and her son John Ismael

Arrested were car dealer Pia Katrina Panganiban, 29, her husband, 44-year-old dismissed policeman Christian Suarez Panganiban, and their driver Gil Valdemoro Dy, 41.

The trio were subjected to a thorough investigation in connection with the disappearance  of Mollenido and her son after they went to the couple’s residence at Blk. 4, Lot 18,, Galacia Street in Villa San Agustin in Bgy. San Agustin in Novaliches, Q.C.

The Panganibans were arrested in their residence while Dy was tracked down in his house at Blk. 17, Lot 7, Phase 5, Pascualer Villa in San Bartolome, Q.C.

The arrest of the three came after Philippine National Police chief Gen. Jose Melencio C. Nartatez Jr. ordered NCRPO director Maj. Gen. Anthony A. Aberin to ensure that the case of the murdered victims from Village Green, Bgy. Lower Bicutan in Taguig City will be solved.

The investigation conducted by the QCPD headed by Col. Randy Glenn G. Silvio showed that the victims went to the couple’s house last January 16 on board her Toyota Innova with plate no. NAK 2796 which the policewoman wanted to sell to complete the payment for a Mitsubishi Montero she wanted to buy from Pia.

The slain policewoman was said to have paid a P550,000 down payment to Pia prior to the visit.

However, three days later, the policewoman’s estranged husband, Police MSgt. John Mollenido, showed up at the Taguig City Police Station to report the disappearance of the two.

A Taguig City police investigation showed that the Innova of the victim was sold to a buy-and-sell agent identified as Romeo Carolino for P450,000.

On January 24, the body of PSMSgt. Mollenido was recovered on Pulilan Bypass Road in Bgy. Dulong Malabon in Pulilan, Bulacan. She was found with a gunshot wound in the head and her body wrapped in a black garbage bag.

The discovery of the policewoman’s body prompted Aberin to create a Special Investigation Task Group composed of officers from the QCPD and the Taguig City Police Station.

Last Thursday, the body of John Ysmael was discovered in a grassy area of a calamansi farm in Sitio Malinis in Bgy. Maluid in Victoria, Tarlac. The boy was found to have been suffocated to death.

On Friday, the slain policewoman’s estranged husband John positively identified the body found in a calamansi farm in Victoria, Tarlac as his son.

The QCPD dug deeper into the case until they were able to identify Dy as one of the principal suspects in the double murder case.

Backed up by pieces of evidence and witnesses’ accounts, the QCPD arrested the three suspects after they established that the trio had something to do with the gruesome killings.

QCPD operatives were able to recover the mobile phones of the suspects  and the victims’ cellphones and now undergoing forensic examination.

A silver Toyota Fortuner used by the suspects to transport and later dispose the bodies of the victims was recovered by the police in Angeles City, Pampanga.

Authorities are searching for the gun used by the suspects in shooting the policewoman to death.