Apparently, because of gossips, a person can kill friends and be bitter enemies.
Part-time model Julie Ann Rodelas, 20, was abducted, raped, and shot after allegedly spreading gossip about her friend Althea Altamirano having two children.
While it’s true that Altamirano, also a model, already has two kids, she opted to keep it a secret for fear of affecting her modeling career. She later learned that it was Rodelas who was spreading the gossip. Because of this, she confided to her boyfriend Fernando Quiambao Jr., who, in turn, said he would teach Rodelas a lesson.
According to various reports, Rodelas was abducted by three men hired by Quiambao to carry out the earlier plan. Rodelas was then with Altamirano walking along the Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard near the World Trade Center at past midnight on Tuesday, November 6. The two friends were said to have met to patch up things between them.
But Altamirano, based on the police blotter, narrated that two men took Rodelas and pushed the latter inside their vehicle. Rodelas’ body was hours later found in a street in Cubao.
Police reports later revealed that Rodelas was taken to a house in Barangay Culiat, Quezon City, where she was raped before she was shot in the head and body five times.
But thanks to a fast-food outlet’s burger receipt that the victim was still holding even after she was shot, it led the police to solving the crime. The investigators went to the fast-food outlet to check the CCTV footage, which eventually showed that it was Quiambao who bought the food at the time stamped on the receipt Rodelas was holding.
Police authorities made a follow-up operation and four of the suspects were already arrested, including Altamirano and Quiambao, who owned the black Mitsubishi Montero that was used to abduct Rodelas. The couple was the first ones to be arrested on Saturday, November 10, at around 6 p.m in Apalit, Pampanga.
Altamirano, however, stressed that she didn’t know it would end up like this. She thought her boyfriend would just teach Rodelas a lesson.
Further investigation by the Quezon City Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit showed that Quiambao was already involved in cases such as robbery, attempted murder, and carnapping.
Police operations to arrest the other suspects in Barangay Culiat, meanwhile, triggered a shootout between police and suspects, leaving one suspect, alias Bob Usman, dead. The other two suspects arrested were Jaymar Waradje and Gelan Pasewalan. Two more suspects, identified as Efren Talip and “Aldos,” remain at large.
Police reports said that Altamirano was the one who gave Rodelas a break in the modeling industry, so they’re seeing deep grudge as a motive and the root cause is the gossip.
A presscon, which was slated the other day, didn’t push through as police authorities have decided to quickly file appropriate charges against the suspects. The suspects are now charged with murder and illegal possession of firearms.
