Australian, wife face murder case

CEBU, Philippines - The Australian national tagged in the death of a man who was charred inside a vehicle in Busay, Cebu City three months ago is now facing a murder complaint.

The Cebu City Police Office filed yesterday the complaint against Australian Craig Keith Ratcliff and his wife, Maria Aisa Baldomar-Ratcliff, who are both still at-large.

The police said they found reason to tag the Ratcliffs as responsible for the killing of 60-year-old Timothy Wilson, a retired US Navy member, based on the "series of unbroken sets of circumstantial evidence."

Investigation revealed that Craig has a long overdue debt to Wilson amounting to $700,000, which the police believe to have been the "strong or convincing motive" of Craig in perpetrating the crime.

"The tenacious demands for payment by Timothy A. Wilson to the suspects may have triggered the plan to liquidate or kill the victim considering that if and when the lending agreement (between the suspects and the victim) would be enforced, the spouses (Ratcliffs) would lost everything," the police stated in their complaint.

They added that the supposed payment of Craig to Wilson was only a ploy to assure that the latter would go voluntarily with him alone.

Wilson's charred body was found inside a burned Toyota RAV4 in Lower Busay, Cebu City on March 17.

Police took into account the statement of two PUJ drivers who revealed that they were hired by Craig in the afternoon of March 17 to tow his Toyota RAV4 from a hotel where he checked in to an upland area as it allegedly incurred a mechanical problem.

The drivers said they noticed that Craig kept the car windows closed despite the intense heat of the sun. After leaving Craig, one of the drivers said he saw from afar that Craig boarded a white Toyota Innova that sped off from the area.

"Circumstances tend to establish that Timothy Wilson was already dead on March 16, 2016 when Ratcliff (Craig) checked in at Cebu Hilltop Hotel: his (Wilson's) dead body was concealed and stuck at the front seat of silver gray Toyota RAV4," the police said.

They also discovered that Craig concealed his true identity when he registered his name in the hotel as Kevin Kline "to conceal such a heinous crime of murder."

 The Cebu City Intelligence Branch was able to track down the white Toyota Innova and found out that it was registered under the name of Maria Aiza Ratcliff, the wife of the suspect.  The victim's wife, Jocelyn Wilson, said her husband was last seen with Craig. This was confirmed by Craig's wife when Jocelyn talked to her over the phone.

After the news about Wilson's death came out, Aisa could no longer be contacted, the police added.  (FREEMAN)