Paraffin test clears son of slain Japanese trader

A Fil-Japanese teenager was virtually cleared of complicity in the killing of his father, businessman Hiroo Murakami who was murdered in Parañaque City last week.

Parañaque City police director Superintendent Ronald Estilles said yesterday Artemio Hiromasa Murakami, 19, voluntarily underwent a paraffin test to show that he did not fire a gun at the time his father was killed inside his bedroom on May 8.

Along with Murakami’s son, Estilles said six employees of the slain businessmen also willingly underwent paraffin test and tested negative for firing a gun on the night of the killing.

Estilles identified the six others as housemaids Florenda Miralles, 27, and Merlita Villanueva, 26, workers Luisito Catacio, Arnold Damina, Anthony Mallari and Alberto Bacales.

Murakami, who ran an export business, was stabbed and shot six times by at least two assailants with a caliber .45 pistol inside his house on Levitown St. in Better Living Subdivision on May 8, Estilles said, without revealing other details.

But Estilles said investigators are puzzled why Murakami’s 52-year-old wife Carmelita and her son from a previous marriage Joel Valle refused to take the paraffin test when police asked them.

Investigators are also puzzled why Carmelita claimed she did not hear gunshots when she was with her husband inside their bedroom when he was attacked in bed. Carmelita had told police she had slept on the floor that night.

Of the nine people who lived with Murakami, only Carmelita and Valle refused to take the test. Carmelita refused to take the test because she had hypertension and diabetes while Valle failed to appear for the test.

But Estiles said investigators had informed Carmelita that the paraffin test would not aggravate her ailments.

Over the weekend, Carmelita finally agreed to take the paraffin test but the police refused to administer it, saying 72 hours had already lapsed since the crime and there would no longer be gunpowder traces on the hands of the perpetrator.

Murakami’s housemaids, Miralles and Villanueva, made statements to the police yesterday afternoon to make statements with their lawyer Tristan Lancay, said Estilles.

Villanueva had been working at the Murakami household for the last three months while Miralles had only been with them for three days when the killing took place.

Investigators are scheduled to take Carmelita’s statement today.

Police have ruled out robbery, love triangle, and business rivalry as motives for the killing but are now looking at the possibility that Murakami’s killers were interested in an inheritance.