Lydia Lugo, a native of Barangay Marbel here, was found dead on the floor inside her employer’s house in Caloocan City with multiple stab wounds on different parts of her body. She also suffered burns on her body. The killing happened last week of June but relatives of Lugo learned about the incident only on July 13.
One of the suspects, identified as Len Erasmo-Layson, 22, a resident of Nangka St., Caloocan City, was arrested a day after the killing.
Layson, believed to be mentally ill is a relative of the live-in partner of Lugo’s employer who has stayed with them for a period of time.
But Maria Joy Divinagracia, relative of Lugo and a resident of Barangay Marbel here believed Layson was a ‘fall guy.’
“We believe he is not the killer and that the real culprits are still roaming free,” said Divinagracia in Cebuano.
Reports reaching Divinagracia said that before Lugo was stabbed to death, the suspects poured hot water on her body.
“That was a brutal death, that is why we want justice for her,” she stressed.
North Cotabato 2nd district Rep. Bernardo Pinol, Jr., who said that Lugo’s relatives in Barangay Marbel were his staunch supporters during the May 14 elections, helped process the retrieval of Lugo’s body so she could be given a decent burial here.
Pinol also assured legal assistance to Lugo’s relatives so that “justice would prevail. I know how poor they are.”
On July 12, Pinol accompanied Lugo’s relative in filing a complaint for murder against the suspect before the Regional Trial Court in Caloocan City.
On Monday, Lugo’s cadaver is expected to arrive here from Metro Manila, according to Oliver Jao, chief of staff of Rep. Pinol.