Saturday, February 23, 2008 Designer found dead, hogtied inside his room
THE body of an interior designer and landscape artist was found inside his bathroom in Mandaue City yesterday noon.
Subangdaku Police Chief Eddie Castañeda said that when they arrived at the scene at 12:10 p.m., they discovered 50-year-old Alexander “Sandy” Deen hogtied and face down next to the toilet bowl.
Deen had lived on the top floor of the Franco building on M.C. Briones St. in Barangay Bakilid for the last three years.
Police believe robbery was the motive for his murder.
PNP medico-legal officers are examining his body to determine the cause of death.
Investigators are trying to establish the identities of three men who accompanied the victim when he came home at dawn last Tuesday.
Police believed his killers took some stuff with them when they left because the victim’s room was a complete mess, but they have yet to identify what the items were.
This is what the police are focusing on now, together with establishing the identities of the three male companions, said SPO2 Alfredo Andales.
Former Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines Cebu chapter head and former American Chamber of Commerce president Danilo Deen also arrived at the scene, as the victim was his nephew.
Building caretaker Michael Garciano, 50, said he and his wife Belen last saw Deen around 4 a.m. last Tuesday. Moments later, they saw three men leave the victim’s room.
The couple said the victim usually came home with different men all the time.
Shortly after the three men left, Belen said she knocked on Deen’s door but there was no answer. She thought he was already asleep.
The couple got worried when Deen did not emerge from his room in the next few days.
Yesterday, Michael noticed the light inside the victim’s bathroom was still on even though it was 10 in the morning. Flies were going in and out of the room. He also noticed the foul odor coming from inside.
The couple immediately called police.
Michael did not know who Deen’s male friends were, but they had tattoos, were dirty and looked like drug users.
He said some of them would stay till midmorning to help Deen carry pots for delivery. Other times they would leave unnoticed.
Castañeda said their first objective is to identify the three men who were last seen with the victim.
The Garcianos don’t remember what they look like because it was still dark and the couple only saw their backs. OCP
