Foundation exec stabbed dead, hunt on for 2 male suspects
A top executive of a foundation/Non-Government Organization (NGO) was found dead yesterday morning inside one of the rooms of a local hotel in Iloilo City.
A clear case of murder, authorities are on the hunt for two male suspects in their early to mid 20s. The victim was identified as 37 year-old Epi Ramos of Cabatuan, Iloilo. He was also the Chief Executive Officer of the Family Health International, a foundation/NGO allied with the Department of Health’s (DOH) National Epidemiology Center.
The victim bore multiple stab wounds numbering to at least 20, five of which were fatal on the chest area and four on the head. He also had defense wounds on both arms consistent with the belief that a struggle ensued between the hapless victim and his attacker/s.
The discovery of his bloodied remains was made at about 8:30am, sprawled in the bathroom of a room in the Fourth Floor of the Eon Centennial Plaza Hotel. Ramos was clad in his shorts and undershirt.
Intelligence sources told The News Today (TNT) that no murder weapon was recovered though probers managed to develop several of the lifted latent fingerprints in the crime scene.
TNT also gathered that hotel management was only alerted by associates of the victim after failing to show up in the scheduled live-in seminar. Ramos was the seminar’s training director with participants coming from the DOH community and various government hospitals throughout Western Visayas.
It was also learned that another hotel guest, a Japanese national, called on hotel housekeeping staff complaining about water apparently coming from the next room.
The victim was estimated to have been dead at least six hours when discovered, another source said. Yesterday was to be the second day of the four-day epidemiology training program he put together as training director.
Further still, TNT sources disclosed that the male suspects left hotel premises about 1:30 am, the same guests of the victim spotted the previous night. With no Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) in place, authorities worked on the description given by the hotel security and workers on graveyard shift.
A master key was used to open the room with the door on automatic-lock system. There was no forcible entry, probers reached by TNT said, one issue acknowledged by hotel management.
Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) officer-in-charge Superintendent Eugenio Espejo was immediately on the crime scene along with the city’s top cops.
This, as Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) combed the room for evidences and fingerprints and worked on the crime scene for about four hours.
“The fingerprints will nail the suspects,” the TNT source added.
The victim’s body was removed past noon yesterday with hotel management calling for an impromptu press conference to address the incident.