BI deports ‘chop-chop lady’ killer

MANILA, Philippines - Convicted killer man Stephen Mark Whisenhunt was deported to the United States on Feb. 28, two months after he was released from the New Bilibid Prison, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday.

Whisenhunt was convicted for killing his Filipina girlfriend, Elsa Castillo, chopping up her body and throwing them along a road in Bataan about 19 years ago.

He boarded a Philippine Airlines flight to Los Angeles, California, Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. said in a statement. He added that they have also included Whisenhunt in their blacklist to prevent him from returning to the Philippines.

“His involvement in a gruesome crime makes him a very undesirable alien who should not be allowed to re-enter our country,” he said.

Castillo’s murder was the subject of two movies. The first, “The Elsa Castillo Story…Ang Katotohanan” was top-billed by Kris Aquino while the second movie, titled “Elsa Castillo Story (Chopchop Lady),” starred Lorna Tolentino.

The BI said records show that the Pasig City regional trial court sentenced Whisenhunt to 40 years  in prison in 1993, but his sentence was commuted for good conduct.

He was released from prison on Dec. 27, 2012 and was turned over to the BI to facilitate his deportation to the United States.

On Sept. 24, 1993, Castillo was stabbed to death by Whisenhunt in a condominium in Greenhills, San Juan.

Demetrio Ravelo, Whisenhunt’s driver, testified that the victim’s body was mutilated after she was stabbed and her body parts were dumped hours later along a road in Bagac, Bataan.

Castillo met Whisenhunt when she worked as assistant personnel manager of the Apex Motor Corporation that was managed by the latter. Both were married but were estranged from their spouses.