Police have arrested three suspects in the murder of beauty queen Geneva Lopez and her Israeli boyfriend Yitzhak Cohen last year.
GENEVA Lopez and Yitzhak Cohen.
One of the suspects was arrested in Zone 5, Barangay Care, Tarlac City on March 18 on a warrant for murder issued by the Capas, Tarlac Regional Trial Court Branch 109 on March 10, 2025.
The warrant was also served on March 17 against two other suspects detained at the Tarlac City Jail.
Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Police Major Gen. Nicolas Torre III identified the suspects as Jay, Rommel, and Jeffrey.
The bodies of the victims were recovered in a quarry in Capas on July 6, 2024.
The sister of Lopez said they were on their way to Capas on June 21, 2024, to meet one of the suspects, Michael Angelo Guiang, to discuss a parcel of land pawned to Geneva in 2021.
However, the victims went missing that day and Geneva’s family posted that their situation on social media.
On June 22, 2024, the victim’s vehicle was found burned in Capas.
Police recovered a partially scorched document with the name Geneva Lopez written on it from the vehicle.
On July 4, 2024, police received information that Jay is willing to cooperate with them about the incident.
Jay issued a statement and surrendered to the police.
The suspect, accompanied by the police, pinpointed the area where the victims were buried.
Police obtained a search warrant and exhumed the bodies of the victims.
The bodies were taken to a funeral home in Tarlac City where they were positively identified by their families.
An autopsy was conducted which said that the victims died from bullet wounds.
Murder cases were filed against five suspects before the Department of Justice in Manila on Aug. 15.
Torre commended apprehending units for the arrest of the suspects.
"Rest assured that your CIDG means business. We urge the public to report all the criminalities, criminals and fugitives in your localities, and your CIDG will do the rest,” Torre said.