Taxi driver chokes, hangs ex-lover

Taxi driver Romeo Castro is presented to the press after his arrest for allegedly killing his former lover yesterday dawn in barangay Labangon, Cebu City.
(CDN PHOTO/APPLE MAE TA-AS)

A married taxi driver is accused of killing his former lover by choking and hanging her body from a beam of her house to make it appear that she killed herself.

Romeo Castro, 52, was arrested after the 6-year-old son of the victim, Scarlet Ventic Debalucos, 30, described to  police what really happened in  A. Lopez St., barangay Labangon, Cebu City yesterday dawn.

The boy said Castro and his mother argued.

Castro allegedly choked  the woman until she fell unconscious. Then  he took a nylon rope, tied it around her neck and hanged her body to make it appear that it was case of suicide.

The victim’s cousin, Hutsh Jesus Roque, told police  that he heard his nephew crying hard. When he checked, he saw Debalucos hanging from the beam of her house.

They untied her and brought her to Cebu City Medical Center where she was  declared dead.

Her body will be autopsied at the St. Francis Funeral Homes.

Castro, who was later arrested in his residence in the same barangay, denied the accusation.

He said he was surprised when his wife woke him up because homicide policemen were looking for him.

Castro  admitted that Debalucos was his former lover.

The woman left  three children aged seven, six and two. Her husband left them years ago.

Castro said the woman sent him a text message last Sunday asking for P500 to spend for her kids’ school expenses yesterday.  He said he went to her house past 9 p.m. and  stayed for a while.  However, his wife said Castro arrived home at dawn.

“I am not a criminal. We don’t fight often except when she gets jealous if I fail to reply to her text messages,” Castro said in Cebuano.

Castro said  he already broke up with Debalucos but that she kept in touch with him to ask financial support for her children.

Debalucos’ relatives said they often heard the two arguing and that the coupld separated after more than a year in the relationship. The couple used to live together in Mandaue City.

At one time, both were summoned to the barangay hall to settle their domestic troubles.

Insp. Arieza Otida, head of Women and Children Protection Desk (WCPD) of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) said Debalucos’ children will undergo stress debriefing.

They are not discounting the possibility that Castro physically harmed them in the past.

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