Philippine authorities say the suspect in last week’s murder of two Australians and their Filipino companion has turned himself in.
On July 10, hotel staff discovered the bodies of the three victims, their hands and feet tied, in a hotel room in Tagaytay City, a popular resort town south of Manila.
The victims were Sydney resident David James Fisk (57), his partner Lucita Barquin Cortez (55), a Philippine-born Australian, and Cortez’s Filipina daughter-in-law.
Tagaytay police Chief Charles Daven Capaguan told The Associated Press the breakthrough in the case a week ago came when at least three hotel employees identified the suspect based on partial facial images of a masked suspect caught on security cameras.
Capaguan said the suspect’s identity eventually led them to his hometown in Batangas province near Tagaytay, where he decided to surrender himself.
The footage showed a man wearing a mask and hoodie and carrying a sling bag leaving the victim’s room several hours before the body was discovered.
Tagaytay Mayor Abraham Tolentino and Capaguan presented the handcuffed suspect, whose name was not released, wearing a hoodie, dark glasses and a face mask at a press conference on Wednesday.
The mayor renewed his apologies to the victims’ families and to Australia for the “brutal crime” that took place in the city.
“He wanted revenge against the hotel management for firing him,” Capaguan told reporters, adding that the suspect once worked as a pool cleaner at the hotel.
In addition to murder, authorities plan to file criminal charges of robbery against the suspect, who admitted to attacking Fisk with a knife and choking Cortez and her stepdaughter to death before stealing Fisk’s watch and shoes, Capaguan said.
The woman’s relatives said the couple had flown from Sydney to Bali for the holidays, then travelled to the Philippines on Monday to visit Ms Cortes’ two children and had decided to have a short holiday in Tagaytay before returning to Australia.
Fisk was previously business development director at Australian software company Jiwa Financials, according to his LinkedIn profile, and previously worked in sales at debt collection software company Debtrak, before enjoying a long career in business technology.
