Suspect in deaths of Australians at Philippines resort is former pool cleaner allegedly sacked by hotel
The suspect in the killings of two Australians and their Filipina companion at a hotel in a popular resort city south of Manila was a former pool cleaner who allegedly wanted to retaliate against the hotel for firing him.
The suspect claimed that he randomly barged into the victims’ room last week because its window was open, Philippine officials said on Wednesday.
A hotel worker found the bodies of three victims, whose hands and feet were tied, on 10 July in a room at a hotel in the popular resort of Tagaytay city, south of Manila.
The victims were Sydney man David James Fisk, 57, his partner, Lucita Barquin Cortez, 55, a Philippine-born Australian citizen, and a younger relative of Cortez’s Filipina daughter-in-law.
“He wanted to get back at the hotel management for his dismissal,” Capagcuan claimed, adding that the suspect used to work as a swimming pool cleaner but was allegedly fired by the hotel in March after he was linked to a robbery in one of the rooms.
Police officials planned to file criminal complaints of robbery in addition to the killings against the suspect.