Police presented security guard Jessie Mediquillo to the media for the first time following his surrender on April 12,/ Tonee Despojo
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Police said that the killing of 14-year-old Thesa Marie Ygay in Danao City was a crime of passion.
But security guard Jessie Mediquillo, the primary suspect in the girl’s murder, said that rage drove him to kill Ygay, whose body he also dumped in a septic tank at the Cogon Cruz Intergrated School.
In tears, Mediquillo said that he regretted having killed Ygay.
He said that he was just angry at the girl’s father who threatened to kill him after he cut short Ygay’s hair, when he found out that the girl already had a boyfriend and would often go out at night.
But he denied any romantic involvement with the high school student, whom he treated like his own niece.
Read More: Police say girl found in septic tank had a ‘close relationship’ with suspect
Police presented Mediquillo to the media at the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) on Monday afternoon and after a reenactment of Ygay’s killing at the guardhouse of the Cogon Cruz Integratd school at around 7:30 p.m. of April 5.
Mediquillo surrendered to the Tuburan police on April 12.
“Na konsensya ko sa ako gi buhat (I was bothered by my conscience),” he said sobbing.
Read More: Thesa Marie Ygay: another victim of brutal killing
He said that Ygay would normally visit the guard house especially during his payday to ask for money. He said that he would normally give money to the girl to especially help in her school needs.
But during the girl’s visit on April 5, he refused to give her money which led to an argument. Blinded by his rage, Mediquillo said that he stabbed the girl several times on the body with the use of a kitchen knife.
Mediquillo said he wrapped the girl’s body in a plastic mat and kept her body at the guard house for at least four hours before he decided to dump this into the school’s already exposed septic tank.
Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, PRO-7 head, said that Mediquillo will be subjected to psychological and mental evaluation to check on the veracity of his statements.
Sinas said that they were also preparing to file a murder case against the security guard./dcb