LAW AND ORDER
Five persons, including victim’s friend, arrested in Nueva Ecija double murder-arson case
3/12/26, 11:15 PM
By Annietha Fae Mar
Five of six suspects in the murder and torching of a businesswoman and her driver have been arrested by the police within two days after the double slaying in Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija.
Investigators said a woman believed to be the brains behind the double murder was among those arrested. She is a friend of one of the victims, Regine Espinosa, 35.
Espinosa’s selfie photographs that she sent to her husband, who is in the United States, led to the arrest of the suspects. Faces of the two gunmen were caught in the photographs.
Also killed in the incident was Michael Odchiegue, 45, driver of Espinosa. The charred remains of the two victims were found inside a burned car belonging to Espinosa.
The two fatalities sustained single gunshot wounds in their respective nape.
CCTV footages recovered in the crime scene showed that on Tuesday, the victim’s car stopped near a closed poultry farm in Peñaranda. As it stopped two gunshots were heard with two men seen alighting from the vehicle.
The video shots also showed that one of the men returned, this time riding a tricycle, to set the vehicle on fire.
Police said the mastermind of the killing was arrested in Mallig, after one of the suspects in the selfie picture turned out to be her husband who remains at-large.
According to police the mastermind owed the woman victim PhP2.5 million. It was apparently the suspect’s failure to pay her debt that triggered the killings.