PAMPANGA (Updated 1:56 p.m.) -- A special investigation task group was formed Friday to track down and arrest the killer of five persons who were murdered in an apartment in Barangay Malabanias, Angeles City.
Angeles City Police Director Danilo Bautista said the task force is composed of Criminal Investigation Detection Unit (Cidu) 3, Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division (RIID), and Angeles Police Intelligence Division.
He said a manhunt operation against the killer who was able to escape from a security guard of Hensonville Court Subdivision in Manuela Street, Barangay Malabanias is still ongoing.
On Thursday, around 1:30 p.m., Albert Mitchell, a retired US Air Force, and his wife Jeanette Androneda Mitchell were found dead along with their housemaids Marissa Prado and Isabel Fajardo and driver Boy Vergara inside their rented apartment in Hensonville Court.
The victims sustained gunshot wounds in the different parts of their body and were already dead when discovered by Angelito Prado, a security guard.
Bautista said Prado and another security guard held a man who came from the victims' apartment.
Prado called his wife, Marissa, at the apartment but no one answered the telephone, prompting him to check on the victims' apartment and was surprised to see the occupants shot to death.
Bautista said Prado hurriedly went back to the guard house but the suspect was not around.
The other guard told police that the suspect asked permission to load his cellphone but promised that he will come back.
The guard said the suspect was wearing white t-shirt and is about 30 years old. He has 5'6" height and white complexion. He added that the suspect boarded a motorized tricycle.
Bautista said robbery could be the motive behind the massacre as an undetermined amount of cash and jewelry were missing from the victims' house.
Responding policemen recovered 13 spent shells for .9mm caliber pistol at the crime scene.
Bautista said the victims know the suspect. (Ric Sapnu of Sun.Star Pampanga/Sunnex)