CEBU CITY -- A ten-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl were found dead Monday inside a room of an apartelle along Escario St., this city, their heads covered with a yellow grocery plastic bag.

Responding policemen found the two kids lying face down on top of the bed in Room 211 on the second floor of The Apartelle at 11 a.m. Monday.

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The policemen also found Felix Ortiz, 35, a few meters away, hanging from a blue nylon rope tied around his neck and secured to the beam of a wall that separated the living room from the bedroom.

Homicide Section Chief Investigator Jay Yballe said it is likely that Ortiz, a native of Surigao City, killed the children late Sunday evening or before dawn Monday before killing himself.

The bodies of the children and Ortiz, Yballe said, had started to stiffen or were already in the "state of rigor mortis", indicating that the killing was done hours before it was discovered.

Jealousy

Asked about Ortiz's motive in taking the children's lives with him, Yballe said, "It was a personal problem. Love and jealousy."

Jobless but a graduate of mechanical engineering, Ortiz used to be the live-in partner of the children's mother, Bernardita Tabal von Borstel, 38, and the father of the five-year-old girl.

The ten-year-old boy was Bernardita's son with her German husband, who had died.

When Bernardita, a native of Barangay Guba, Cebu City, became a widow and went back to Cebu, she met and had a relationship with Ortiz.

Yballe said Bernardita told him what she thought was the reason for the killing but asked for it not to be further discussed with the media.

Her older brother Isabelo and sister-in-law Dalia, in separate interviews, believe that Felix was worried that he no longer had a chance of getting Bernardita back.

"Nakadungog kong niingon akong igsuon nga pangita nala'g lain kay bata paka kita pa ka'g lain (I heard my sister tell him to look for other women)," Isabelo said.

Dalia said when Bernardita arrived in Cebu, she was reportedly with a foreigner boyfriend.

Visit

Yballe said Bernardita and her ten-year-old son arrived in Cebu from Germany last December 27.

Ortiz and the five-year-old girl, on the other hand, arrived from Surigao City last December 31 and checked in at the apartelle.

The five-year-old girl, a Kinder I pupil in Surigao City, was in her father's care because Bernardita, being a German citizen, travels to and from Germany.

Yballe said Bernardita and her son visited Ortiz and their daughter last Sunday at the apartelle so the kids could spend time together.

Around 7 p.m., Bernardita left the apartelle to visit her ailing mother in Guba, leaving her son behind.

When she went back to the apartelle at past 7 a.m. Monday, the door was locked and nobody answered her knocks.

Thinking that something was wrong, Bernardita immediately sought the assistance of the apartelle's staff in opening the room, Yballe said.

It was then that she discovered what happened to Ortiz and her two children.

Autopsy

A team of homicide investigators led by Yballe and personnel from the Scene of the Crime Operations (Soco) in Central Visayas led by Senior Inspector David Alexander Patriana did not find any sign of struggle or commotion inside the room.

Judging from the presence of the nylon rope, it is possible that Ortiz had planned the killing beforehand, Yballe said.

The bodies of the children and Ortiz were taken to Cebu Rolling Hills for autopsy to determine the cause of death, particularly that of the children.

Yballe has yet to speak with the apartelle's administration and staff to know if they heard anything prior to the discovery of the bodies.

No representative from the apartelle was available to issue a statement Monday although the facility's security personnel were there and prevented reporters from entering or getting near the establishment.

They also used white linens to block reporters and onlookers, who had gathered nearby, from viewing the bodies when these were taken out of the apartelle.

Yballe said Bernardita described Felix to be a good and silent person and she did not notice any indication that he was planning to kill the children and then commit suicide. (JTG/With reports from DRT of Sun.Star Superbalita/Sun.Star Cebu)