In his Facebook pictures, James Porter wears the smile of a man who has found paradise. On her Facebook page, his girlfriend, Melissa Madarang, 22, had recently changed her status to 'engaged' and excitedly told her family of their plans to marry this month. Their happiness was short-lived. On July 16 police found the bodies of Porter, a 51-year-old Briton, in the bedroom and Madarang in the living room of their modest rented apartment in Angeles City. A pillow covered her shattered face.
Porter and Madarang were among nine people shot dead in three separate incidents over 12 days in this city of more than 300,000 people, 120 kilometres north of Manila. In each case, the killer chose a foreign-born man and his Filipino partner, and robbed them. A suspect is in custody and police say the same gun was used for all the killings, which were carried out with a bullet to the head, and another delivered into the body.
The killings have struck fear into the expat community in Angeles City, which is home to 2,500 retired foreign men. More than half are US military pensioners who stayed on after the United States abandoned the nearby Clark Air Base. Long-time resident Larry Heilhecker, 66, a retired US Air Force officer, told the Sunday China Morning Post how the crimes had left a deep psychological impact on people.
'The expats [here] - Americans and British especially and many Australians - they all feel the same way. The reason they live here is they perceive this place to be much more tranquil and safe than other parts of the world,' he said.
The man in custody is Mark Dizon, whom police identified using witness statements and Facebook pictures. He is the jilted boyfriend of a woman named Czarina, who is the daughter of another couple found shot dead.
Albert Mitchell, 70, a former US Air Force master sergeant, and his Filipino wife Janet, 53, were killed on July 22 along with their two maids, Isabel Fajardo and Marissa Prado, both 29, and driver Yulberto Catli. They lived inside Hensonville Court, a gated and guarded paradise where homes cost upwards of six million pesos (HK$1 million).