ILOILO – Thirty-six-year-old businesswoman Claire Diergos of Barangay Balabag, Pavia town had no known enemies, according to her family. She was “mabuot” (kind), said her father Samuel. So who had the motive to kill her?
Diergos was found dead late Tuesday afternoon in her sport utility vehicle abandoned in Barangay Inangayan, Santa Barbara town. She had multiple stab wounds. He throat was slashed.
But the police theorized that Diergos may have been killed not in Barangay Inangayan but in her house at Deca Homes Subdivision, Barangay Balabag, Pavia.
Yesterday, Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) cordoned the house and combed it for evidences and clues which they hoped could help identify Diergo’s killer/s.
They spotted traces of blood in Diergo’s bedroom that appeared to have been scrubbed clean.
Tying in to the theory that the murder may have been carried out in the house was Diergos family’s confirmation that the comforter used to conceal the businesswoman’s body in her vehicle was hers.
Yesterday, two bloodstained pillows were also recovered near the area where Diergo’s vehicle was abandoned.
Diergos was originally from Barangay Dagsaan, Buenavista, Guimaras. The single mother held multiple jobs to support her daughter. She was an insurance agent and a part-time medical representative. She also had a mango business.
According to Police Major Raymund Celoso, Santa Barbara police chief, a closed-circuit television footage from the subdivision showed Diergos’ vehicle exiting around 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 25, Monday.
“But wala pa mabal-an kung sin-o ang nagadala,” Celoso said.
One of the first persons the police invited for questioning was Diergos’ newly-hired house help Rodelyn Sumbong of New Lucena, Iloilo.
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, who had a three-year-old daughter, 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.
Diergos’ father Samuel, however, found it unusual that Sumbong appeared unbothered that she had not seen her employer since Monday morning.
He further wondered why Sumbong had not informed the family that her daughter had not been home since Monday.
Autopsy showed Diergos with multiple stab wounds: two on the neck, five on the left hand and two on the right hand.
“Wawa ang liog sang biktima,” Celoso said. “May mga magagmay nga lacerated wounds ang kamot, meaning nagbato sia. Ang attacker ara sa likod sang biktima.”
The killer was right-handed based on the cut (from left to right) on the victim’s neck, Celoso added./PN