Angeles slay suspect never nabbed for past crimes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
07/25/2010
ANGELES CITY, Philippines – A warrant of arrest was issued in 2005 against a man suspected of robbing and killing three foreigners and six Filipinos in three separate incidents here over the last two weeks.
However, the warrant was never served and Mark Dizon remains free for more than five years. Dizon, 28, was even able to audition for the television reality show “StarStruck” a few years ago, police and local officials said.
Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said Angeles Regional Trial Court Judge Philbert Iturralde issued an arrest warrant against Dizon on Jan. 13, 2005, for robbery and car theft.
In a news conference on Sunday, both Pamintuan and Chief Insp. Marcelo Banola, head of the city police’s investigation branch, could not say why the warrant was never served.
Dizon, a computer technician and reflexologist, is being hunted for allegedly robbing and killing American Albert Mitchell, 70; his Filipino wife Janet, 53; and helpers Isabel Fajardo, 29; Marissa Prado, 29; and Yulberto Catli, in Hensonville Court Subdivision here on July 22.
He is also the suspect in the robbery and killing of Briton James Bolton Porter, 51, and his live-in partner, Melissa Madarang, 22, in Sta. Maria Subdivision on July 16, and the robbery and murder of Canadian Geoffrey Allan Bennun, 60, and live-in partner Abegail Helina, 20, at the Oasis Hotel and Villas in Clarkville Compound on July 12.
Ballistic tests showed that the gun used in killing the victims came from the same 9mm pistol.
On Sunday, a local pawnshop owner turned over to Pamintuan a laptop computer, a video camera, a digital camera, camera lenses and cellular phones pawned by Dizon recently.
Banola, however, refused reporters’ request to turn the laptop on to see who owned it.
Dizon was held by security guards while he was about to leave the gate of Hensonville Court Subdivision in the afternoon of July 22.
The subdivision’s security guards became suspicious and held Dizon when they noticed that he was carrying a backpack, a laptop bag and a laundry bag on his way out although he was only carrying a backpack when he entered the subdivision.
However, Dizon was able to escape by telling a guard at the gate that he would buy load credits for his mobile phone at a nearby store and would return.
When a guard checked the house of the Mitchells, they were shocked to see that the American, his wife and the three helpers were dead.
Jun Malig, Inquirer Central Luzon
Cops got him. Note he is a “gun enthusiast” ‘am sure some ignorant media people will link him to us, not knwing the difference between a legitimate gunowner and a criminal.
Facebook helps Philippine cops nab murder suspect
27 July 2010
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine police tracked down a suspect in a series of grisly robberies and murders with the help of his Facebook account, officials said Tuesday.
Mark Dizon, a 28-year-old computer technician, did not resist when arrested Tuesday while talking with his father in a public square in northern San Fernando city, police Senior Superintendent Danilo Bautista said.
He is accused of killing nine people _ six Filipinos, an American, a Canadian and a Briton _ in three different robberies at hotels and homes this month in Angeles city. The area, near the former U.S.-run Clark Air Force Base some 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Manila, is home to many retired expatriates.
Dizon, who is from a well-off family and according to police had a fascination with guns, was Facebook friends with the daughter of one of the victims. A friend of her family showed his photo on the popular social networking site to witnesses to help identify him, police said.
“He was fond of computers and this gave him away,” Bautista told The Associated Press.
The string of deadly robberies started July 12, when Canadian Geoffrey Alan Bennun, 60, and his Filipino girlfriend were shot to death after a robber broke into their hotel room.
Four days later, Briton James Bolton Porter, 51, and his girlfriend were killed by a gunman in their house in Angeles’ Malabanas village, police said.
Last week, a gunman killed American Albert Mitchell, a 70-year-old World War II veteran of the U.S. Air Force, along with his Filipino wife, Janet, 53, and three Filipino staff inside their Angeles home, Bautista said.
In the last killing, the fleeing gunman was seen by a village guard and a motorcycle taxi driver, who later described him to investigators, according to police.
After hearing descriptions of the suspect, a family friend of the Mitchells looked up Dizon’s Facebook page _ the Mitchells’ daughter was one of his friends on the site. He showed the Facebook profile photo to the witnesses, who identified him as the man fleeing they saw, Bautista said.
He added that the same pistol was used in all the killings, linking Dizon to the other two crimes.