Teahouse owner’s son tagged in poisoning
The son of a teahouse owner, who died after tasting allegedly poisoned milk tea in Manila on Thursday, is under investigation for his father’s death, police said yesterday.
“Their helper has a statement. We cannot ignore that,” Senior Inspector Melchor Villar, chief of Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section, told The STAR.
Lloyd’s lawyer, Benedicto Buenaventura, told The STAR the family will give its side after the wake.
MPD director Senior Superintendent Rolando Nana said they have yet to come up with a suspect pending the result of the laboratory tests on the milk tea.
The Manila City government’s health department has officially shut down the teahouse. The establishment has been closed since owner William Abrigo died. His family told police the teahouse will not be reopened.
Foul odor
According to the helper, identified by the alias Raymundo Santos, the night before Abrigo and his customer Suzaine Dagohoy died, a foul smell wafted through the Ergo Cha Tea House’s kitchen.
Abrigo’s only son, Lloyd, allegedly brought the foul-smelling liquid into the kitchen just before 10 p.m. Wednesday, Santos said.
“It was the second time that… Lloyd brought something like that in the kitchen,” Santos told The STAR. “I didn’t think it was suspicious until (Abrigo and Dagohoy) died.”
About a month ago, Santos said Lloyd also visited the store. After which, he noticed that the pitcher they use to make milk tea smelled of bleach.
A day after Lloyd’s visit, a customer complained of stomach pains after ordering milk tea, Santos said.
Weeks passed after Lloyd’s visit and no similar incidents occurred. As a newly hired employee and barely a month in his job, Santos said he just wanted to focus on work.
Only minutes apart
On April 9, Abrigo and Dagohoy died after drinking the Hokkaido flavored milk tea, which Abrigo made himself. Their deaths came less than five minutes apart.
Dagohoy and her boyfriend, Arnold Aydallah, were Abrigo’s first customers for the day. Aydallah ordered the milk tea from Abrigo at about 10:40 a.m.
When the glass was handed over to Aydallah, he vomited and complained that he could not stand the taste. He asked Dagohoy to taste the milk tea.
She drank and threw up. Embarrassed, Abrigo took the glass and sampled the milk tea, insisting there was nothing wrong with his product until he and Dagohoy started frothing at the mouth and collapsed.
They were rushed to Ospital ng Sampaloc, where physicians declared them dead on arrival.
Aydallah was reported to be in stable condition at the Philippine General Hospital, according to
ABS-CBN.
Santos said the deaths left him dumbfounded and he remembered the incident a month ago. He said that the night before Abrigo and Dagohoy died, Lloyd had brought a foul-smelling liquid into the store.
“Only this time, the stench was stronger. Much stronger,” he said.
According to Santos, Abrigo and Lloyd arrived at the teahouse about 9:45 p.m. on Wednesday. Lloyd went to the kitchen, and like last month, asked for a glass that he could use.
Santos gave him a glass that the teahouse used to measure the ice needed for milk tea. He left Lloyd alone but before he could leave the kitchen, the helper once again smelled the odor he remembered from a month ago.
“I’m not accusing… Lloyd of anything. All am saying was that he brought a foul-smelling liquid in the kitchen before the deaths occurred,” he said.
FDA eyes cyanide
Meanwhile, Food and Drug Administration director general Nicolas Lutero III said they were advised by toxicologists to look for cyanide first in the milk tea samples submitted by the police.
“Given the short time that the victims felt the effects, we are focusing first on cyanide. When we don’t find cyanide, it would only be then that we will look for other substances,” he said.
Lutero said if the milk tea was simply spoiled, the effects would not be that fast. He said their experts may have results by tomorrow. –