THE third suspect in the robbery-homicide incident at a laundry shop in Tondo, Manila had been cleared and sent home.

This was learned from SPO3 Virgo Villareal, investigator on case of the Manila Police District-Homicide Section, who said that the witnesses failed to positively identify Richard Oja as among those who barged into the Bulls Eye Laundry shop at dawn last January 31.

Villareal said the witnesses, including the wounded nanny Maricel Lebrando, did not point to him as a suspect in the said case which left shop owner Kelvin Chioa, 35, dead and his wife Charlene, 34, wounded.  Lebrando was also stabbed but survived.  The witnesses took all of 30 minutes to determine if Oja was indeed a suspect or not.

Villareal said the discharge of Oja paves the way for them to present a photo of another suspect.

It will be recalled that arrested suspects George Padios, alias “Toto”, 28, the family’s driver, and their aircon technician Noel Nuylan, 41,  were positively identified by the witnesses as two of three men who perpetrated the said crime.

Oja was fetched from Naga City by SPO2 Adolfo Agustin and PO2 Christopher Cruz on orders of P/Supt. Jemar Modequillo, station commander of MPD-Station 2, and after surrendering to the authorities there to clear his name.

Oja told the police he just went on vacation from the Chioa family and was supposed to report back for work also as a driver but that his wife got pregnant.