Australian couple killed in the Philippines identified
An Australian couple who were allegedly murdered in the Philippines have been identified.
The bodies of 54-year-old David Fisk and his de-facto partner Lucita Barquin Cortez, 55, were found with their hands and feet tied by hotel staff at the Lake Hotel in Tagaytay city, south of Manila, on Wednesday.
The body of another woman, Cortez's 30-year-old daughter-in-law Mary who lives in the Philippines, was also found in the room.
Hotel staff were alerted to the issue when they knocked on the door repeatedly to tell the couple it was time to check out.
Fisk allegedly had his throat was slit with a sharp object that may have caused his death while the two women apparently may have been suffocated using a pillow, Tagaytay police chief Charles Daven Capagcuan told The Associated Press.
Ongoing autopsies would verify those initial indications, he said.
Fisk's family, based in NSW's Sutherland Shire, issued a statement saying they "pray for answers and the truth in this horrific matter".
"The love we have for our Father and Lucita is so dear and this situation is like living a nightmare," the family said.
Capagcuan said the motive for the killings was not immediately clear and added some valuables of the victims, including their mobile phones, were not taken by the suspect.
"We were shocked by this incident," Tagaytay Mayor Abraham Tolentino said, apologising to the families of the victims.
"We're very sorry to our Australian friends. We will resolve this as soon as possible."
Tolentino said investigators were interviewing witnesses and examining security cameras at the hotel which could help identify the suspect or suspects, as a suspicious hooded figure was seen in the corridors of the hotel around the time of their deaths.
A Filipino relative of the Australian woman told the AP that the Australian couple flew from Sydney to the Indonesian resort island of Bali for a vacation then headed to the Philippines on Monday to visit her two children from a previous marriage in the country.
It's understood the Australian couple had been due to fly back home to Sydney on July 13th.
Image credits: Cavite Provincial Police Office