DRUG USER BEHEADS LIVE-IN PARTNER IN CEBU

CEBU CITY: A drug-user who recently graduated from a rehabilitation program beheaded his live-in partner during a heated argument in Consolacion town, northern Cebu on Sunday morning.

Police found the headless body of Lovely Jane Quiño, 25, in the kitchen of their house in sitio Libo, Barangay Tayud at about 7 a.m. It bore hack wounds and the legs and hands were fractured. Her head was recovered about nine meters away from their house which is about one kilometer away from the highway.

The suspect, Quiño’s live- in partner Dominic Pahugot, 27, escaped but responding policemen caught him near Cansaga Bridge, about 500 meters away from their house.

Investigators said the beheading “was not clean cut,” as shown by several hack wounds on the head.

The gruesome incident was witness by their two children, ages three and one year old.

Supt. Mina Domingo, Comsolacion police chief, said Pahugot attempted to hack policemen who pursued him with a bolo prompting the policemen to shoot him.

Police recovered from Pahugot two bolos covered with mud.

According to their neighbors, the couple had an altercation prior to the incident. They added that time and Quiño was a victim of domestic violence.

Mina said they received a complaint from the victim last month regarding the domestic violence.

The chief of police said that illegal drugs use could have triggered Pahugot’s rampage.

A background check revealed that Pahugot is a part-time construction worker and “Oplan Tokhang” responder who was discharged recently from a drug rehabilitation center.

Mina added that Pahugo faced several complaints previously for alarm and scandal for running amok for unknown reasons. Police have been receiving information that he was a drug user.

The couple’s two children are now in the custody of their grandmother.