Man tagged in Cebuana’s slay in New Zealand nabbed

THE man accused of murdering 56-year-old Cebuana Blesilda “Blessie” Gotingco in New Zealand was arrested by police but was granted name suppression by the court.

According to the New Zealand Herald, the suspect appeared before Judge Philippa Sinclair yesterday and did not apply for bail for the murder charge against him.

Gotingco, a native of Cebu was found in the bushes at the Eskdale cemetery in Birkdale, Auckland.
The 27-year-old suspect who was living 1.4 kilometers from Gotingco’s home in Salisbury Road in Auckland, New Zealand could not be named yet as he was granted interim name suppression.

Gotingco’s family still thanked the New Zealand media for publishing the story.

“Personally, on behalf of my family I would like to thank all the media people in New Zealand for all the concern, the sympathies and all the publication that my wife has received. My wife is a very private person and overnight she became a sensation, and I don’t think she’s going to like it, but I’m sure she’s happy… it really helped the case,” husband Antonio said.

“We’re thankful to the media for getting the story out,” Gotingco’s son Vincent said.

“I want the whole public to know my wife was a good person. She was a good wife, good mother, good grandmother and good friend,” Antonio said in a report of One News.

The motive behind the murder is still unknown.

In a report of One News, New Zealand police saw a closed-circuit TV footage of Gotingco leaving her workplace at Tower Insurance at 6:53 p.m. last Saturday (New Zealand time).

Since then, she went missing after getting off a bus stop close to her home.