MANDAUE CITY, Philippines - Mandaue City policemen arrested a neighbor of the call center agent who was found dead inside her rented room in Barangay (village) Guizo.
Jerome Oporto, 30, was taken into police custody after the cellphone stolen from Cheryl Reoma was traced to a buyer on Monday night.
Police said Oporto, who was captured in his house in Barangay Guizo, did not resist arrest. In the presence of a public attorney, he later signed an extrajudicial confession admitting to killing the woman and stealing her cellphone.
Oporto appeared remorseful when he was presented to the media on Tuesday before he was taken to the court.
Charges of robbery with homicide were to be filed against him for the death of Reoma, a 28-year-old call center agent who was also a widow with one child.
Oporto was a neighbor of the victim and was peeping through a hole in the wall near the door when Reoma noticed him, according to his confession, said Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) station 1 commander, Senior Inspector Seigfred Toribio.
Police said Oporto pretended to ask Reoma if he could borrow P200 from her.
But when the door was opened, Oporto slapped the woman twice and forced her inside her rented room in Magaling Compound.
According to the police report, Oporto got a knife from the table inside the room and stabbed Reoma once.
He then fled with her Sony Ericsson mobile phone.
A witness saw Oporto jump off the fence of the compound.
Police said they believe that Oporto had been spying on his female neighbor, who was living alone since her husband died.
Police said Reoma died on Holy Tuesday but her body was only discovered three days later on Good Friday.
The woman’s wallet and mobile phone were missing.
Last Monday night, the stolen phone was recovered from a buyer in Barangay Guizo who later turned it over to police.
source: Cebu Daily News / Metro
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