A man suspected of stabbing and killing a woman in an MRT-3 station has been arrested after police found him in Mandaluyong City yesterday.
Investigator Police Senior Master Sergeant Gregorio Akbay of the Mandaluyong Police Station told Coconuts Manila through a phone interview that the suspect was identified as Reymart Gavane, a vagrant.
Gavane was arrested at 10:45am yesterday along the northbound MRT footbridge in front of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City.
According to Akbay, Gavane admitted to the crime and said he stabbed the still unidentified woman after getting into a heated argument on Monday. The victim was found by a roving MRT guard in the south wing stairway of the MRT Boni Station (northbound) at around 2:25pm on the same day.
The stab wound was reportedly located on the victim’s lower chest. When the ambulance got there, they found that the woman no longer had a heartbeat.
Akbay initially said that the weapon the woman was stabbed with looked like an ice pick or screwdriver. Gavane, however, told authorities that he stabbed her with a ballpoint pen. Akbay said they were not able to recover the murder weapon.
“There were a lot of ballpens (ballpoint pens) inside the suspect’s bag, but none of them had a trace of blood,” Akbay said in Filipino.
Akbay said that the woman was standing while drinking juice when the suspect arrived and suddenly whipped out the weapon. She then threw the juice at Gavane before he stabbed her near her left breast. Akbay said the woman then fell on the MRT staircase where she was eventually found.
Authorities found that both the suspect and victim often roamed around the MRT Boni station.
A murder case against the suspect is being prepared by the police for inquest proceedings before the Mandaluyong City prosecutor’s office.
