Suspect in killings of two Australians and companion in Philippines hotel surrenders to police

Philippine officials say a suspect in the killings last week of two Australians and their Filipino companion has surrendered.

A hotel worker found the bodies of three victims, whose hands and feet were tied, on July 10 in a room at a hotel in the popular resort of Tagaytay city, south of Manila.

The victims were Sydney man David James Fisk, 57, his partner, Lucita Barquin Cortez, 55, a Philippine-born Australian citizen, and a younger relative of Cortez.

Tagaytay’s police chief, Charles Daven Capagcuan, told The Associated Press that the breakthrough in the week-old case came when the suspect was identified by at least three hotel employees based on his image that was captured by security cameras showing a part of his masked face.

The identification of the suspect eventually led to his home province of Batangas near Tagaytay where he decided to surrender, Capagcuan said.

Capagcuan said last week the motive for the killings was not known and some valuables, including the victims’ phones, had not been taken.

Footage showed a man wearing a mask and a hoodie and carrying a sling bag walking out of the victims’ room a few hours before their bodies were discovered.

The couple had flown from Sydney to Bali for a holiday then went to the Philippines on Monday to visit Cortez’s two children, and decided to take a short break in Tagaytay before returning to Australia, a relative of the woman said.

Fisk was a business developer executive at Australian-owned software company Jiwa Financials, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was previously a sales representative at debt collection software company Debtrak and had a long career in business technology.

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