DNA evidence has placed three men in police custody for their involvement in the murder of Teruko Franz Kingya, ed a 70-year old local woman who was brutally killed in her Ngeremlengui State home on October 2008.
The three men, viagra buy 47-year old Edwin Serio Mengeolt, buy information pills 22-year old Swayer Ngirangeang Johnny, and 27-year old Kenneth Roman, are being held at the Koror jail under a cash bail of $50,000 each.
Mengeolt, the main assailant according to the affidavit of probable cause, has been charged with Murder in the First Degree and Rape. Johnny, who was a teenager at the time, is also facing Murder in the First Degree in addition to Rape and Accessory After the Fact. For his involvement, Roman is facing two criminal charges of Rape and Accessory After the Fact.
Court information reveals that the three men were heavily intoxicated and under the influence of marijuana on the night of the crime.
A decision to go to the victim’s home was made when they ran out of marijuana. The victim was allegedly selling marijuana at the time.
When the three men arrived at her residence at approximately 3 am, Mengeolt entered alone. Upon entry he grabbed a taro leaf shaped hoe along with a screwdriver. With the hoe, he struck the victim’s face while she slept. He then proceeded to stab her with the screwdriver.
He told investigators that he did not stab her in attempt to keep her quiet, but because he wanted to. Sometime during Mengeolt’s assault, the other two men entered the house. According to Mengeolt, the victim was still moving at this point prompting Johnny to “choke her”. The criminal acts did not stop there – they each raped her before leaving the residence and discarding both murder weapons.
Throughout the course of the investigation following the killing, many individuals were interviewed and possible suspects were identified, however “there was insufficient evidence at the time to make an arrest”, reports Criminal Investigation Division Chief Richard Ngiratrang.
In January 2013, the case was reassigned to Officer Joram Madlutk who compiled, reorganized and continued with the investigation that eventually led to the arrests.
During the course of the investigation in the past six years, DNA samples were collected each of the three men. The samples including the victim’s sexual assault kit were later submitted to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for analysis.
On October 2014, AFP produced its findings to Palau confirming “DNA samples collected from the suspects were accurate matches to the forensic evidence gathered.” This led to the issuance of a warrant for their arrests on December 5, 2014.
The case has been assigned to Chief Justice Arthur Ngiraklsong, however a hearing date have not been scheduled as of this writing.
The men remain in jail awaiting their trial.
1 thought on “Three Palauan Men Arrested In 6-year Old Murder Case”
Comments are closed.
This is so f*cked up in so many levels – I gotta say, coming from this place and knowing a couple of these guys and the woman who is my best friend from childhood grandmother this is just incomprehensive and beyond any imagination. I know we’ve done some pretty scandalous sin in the past but this is just a mother of all heinous act especially a place where everybody knows everybody, let alone the whole island – WE DON’T DO THIS KIND OF SH*T MAN! The fact that it happens and they were impelled by an urge to get high is just so incomprehensible and what makes it so upsetting is the rape after they hurt her. As a Palauan and Imeyunser, calling another Palauan a monster is not in my vocabulary arsenal but when the talking points is somewhat a monstrous convictions than I don’t have a problem calling somebody a monster with no reservation. As much as I wanna thank and congratulate officer Madlutk for bringing this case close to a closure which I’m sure the family wants and somebody held responsible and punished for I wish it didn’t happen at all. I’m just madly sad for the way it all went down like this.