ILOILO – Witnesses in the killing of 36-year-old businesswoman Claire Diergos are urged to surface.
“We are willing to protect you,” said Police Major Raymund Celoso, chief of the Santa Barbara municipal police station.
Diergos was found dead late Tuesday afternoon in an abandoned sport utility vehicle in Barangay Inangayan, Santa Barbara.
“We are gathering tanan nga magamit naton sa pag-identify sang suspects. We have to review the closed-circuit television footages. We need to enhance (them),” said Celoso.
Several persons of interest have been identified but no witnesses have so far come forward.
“Indi madali ining kaso,” Celoso said.
All possible angles are being studied – from business rivalry to debts to love life.
Police believed robbery was the least likely motive. No valuables were missing from Diergo’s house except for her mobile phone that the assailants mostly likely took with them so that investigators wouldn’t know who the victim was in contact with hours before she was killed.
One security camera footage showed the driver of Diergos’ Montero Sport appeared to be a man, but the face was unrecognizable.
“We need the cooperation of those who may have the knowledge,” said Celoso.
On Friday afternoon, Oct. 29, Diergos’ remains were transported to her parents’ house in Barangay New Poblacion, Buenavista, Guimaras.
“Daw indi ko mabaton ang nadangatan sang akon bata. Tama kasakit,” said Diergos’ mother, Helen.
Her father, Samuel, meanwhile, thanked the people who joined them in their grief.
Diergos’ three-year-old daughter, on the other hand, hasn’t spoken of anything related to her mother.
More than one person was likely involved in the killing of Diergos, investigators earlier theorized.
One was driving her vehicle, the other a getaway vehicle.
Her killers were possible acquaintances, police added.
To recall, two bloodstained pillows were recovered in a creek near the area where Diergo’s sport utility vehicle was abandoned. Her family confirmed these were hers.
Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) also spotted traces of blood in Diergo’s bedroom – at Deca Homes Subdivision in Pavia, Iloilo – and in the receiving room that appeared to have been scrubbed clean.
On Tuesday, after the body was found, the police invited Diergos’ newly-hired house help Rodelyn Sumbong of Barangay Baclayan, New Lucena, Iloilo for questioning.
She last saw Diergos alive late Sunday night (Oct. 24), she told the police, and hadn’t seen her since waking up on Monday morning.
Sumbong was hired just that Sunday afternoon. She said Diergos fetched her at the transport terminal in Barangay Tagbak, Jaro, Iloilo City and they had dinner in Oton town before going home to Deca Homes around 8 p.m.
If Sumbong were to be believed, she went to sleep soundly that Sunday night after Diergos told her to just leave the gate unlocked.
She denied having anything to do with the killing.
Based on the autopsy result, Diergos had multiple stab wounds: two on the neck, five on the left hand and two on the right hand, showing she resisted and fought back because of the defense wounds she sustained./PN
