By CYRUS M. GARDE
CADIZ City — A murder charge will be filed today against a man who allegedly bludgeoned to death his live-in partner in Sitio Pasto, Barangay Magsaysay here.
Ricky Lamis has admitted having a hand in the death of May Rose Gella, who had been missing since June 18 and whose body was found on July 13.
The case will be filed before the City Prosecutor’s Office here, said Supt. Gerardo Ulanday, city police chief.
Gella, 33, died after having been struck by a hard object, according to an autopsy report. She was manhandled, too, the report said.
Lamis, 46, turned himself in to the police and was detained a day after Gella’s body was found.
Before the media, he denied having a hand in the crime. He later confessed to Ulanday that he committed it.
Ulanday said jealousy and ensuing rage pushed Lamis to do it.
On June 18, Lamis and Gella had an argument over the latter’s online chat mate, a male foreigner.
The man strangled and hit his live-in partner. He then wrapped her body with plastic and placed it inside a sack.
Lamis buried the body in a hip-deep hole used in making charcoal about 50 meters away from their house.
Frequent dog barking around the area led to the discovery of the woman’s body 26 days later.
Lamis and Gella have been living together for eight years already.
Gella’s mother later reported to the police that her daughter was missing. Police had sought for her in areas surrounding their house but failed to find her.
Lamis was a parolee for a murder case filed against him several years ago.
His children with another woman urged him to surrender through Barangay Captain Arthur Lamis. His and the village chief’s fathers were second cousins.
Arthur said he went to his brother Larry in Barangay Pahanocoy, Bacolod City, and arranged for the suspect’s surrender.
Gella had a daughter in a previous marriage. The daughter earlier went to Barangay Magsaysay to visit her mother, but Lamis, her stepfather, told her that Gella went to Bacolod.
The daughter was staying with her grandmother in Sagay City./PN
