Suspect’s offer to act as witness in Zarraga massacre turned down
Thanks but no thanks.
The Zarraga Police Station declined the proposal of one of the suspects in the Zarraga massacre to act as state witness.
Zarraga Police Station chief Insp. Elberto Pudadera believed that suspect Peter Complisa alias Turko just wanted to lessen his involvement in the killing of Lilia Simpia and her 23-year old daughter, Ana Mae, by presenting himself as state witness.
“That’s why he asserted that the two other suspects have the hand in the killing of the two victims,” he added.
In fact, investigators are led to believe that he might be the brain behind the break-in at Simpia’s residence.
Pudadera said that affidavits of witnesses debunked Complisa’s allegations that he only served as look-out when the two other suspects brutally killed Lilia and Ana Mae.
Even the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the unit who helped Zarraga PNP solved the incident, doubted Complisa’s claim.
Yesterday, police investigator filed double murder raps against Complisa, 32, of Brgy. Guinobatan, Leganes, Iloilo; Lemuel Buenafe, 46, of a native of Hacienda Culisap, Brgy. Cauayan, Silay City, Negros Occidental but it temporarily residing at Brgy. Rumbang, Pototan; and Reynor Madrelijo, 29, of Brgy. San Vicente, Leganes.
To note, Complisa first surrendered to Zarraga PNP because of a pending case for theft a day after the massacre.
During the interrogation, he admitted participation in the killing of the two victims but claimed that it was Buenafe and Madrelijo who killed the mother and her daughter at their house in Villa Carmela Subdivision in Brgy. Poblacion Ilawod, Zarraga, Iloilo, Thursday evening.
Complisa, a pedicab driver at the victims’ village, alleged that his only participation was serving as look-out while the two other suspects scaled the bamboo fence of the Simpia’s property and stabbed dead the two victims.
But Madrelijo and Buenafe both denied any involvement in the incident.
To note, Lilia succumbed to 33 stab wounds on the different parts of her body while Ana Mae suffered 16 stab injuries after their bodies were found Thursday evening.
Lilia’s body was found slumped at the side of their fence while Anna Mae’s stab-riddled body was discovered in one of the rooms at the family’s residence.
Lilia and Ana Mae, a Medical Technology course graduate, were the house’s two occupants when the incident happened.
The mother was still brought to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival.
