Ted Failon Wife's Alleged Suicide: Shades of O.J?

Forty four year old Trinidad Etong, the wife of ABS-CBN Channel 2 anchor Ted Failon lies comatose at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after suffering from a gunshot wound in her temple. Initial reports said, the Central Police District (CPD) has placed Ted Failon, his sister-in-law and her maids under investigation. Failon and his house helps have been deemed suspects in the case. They will be subjected to paraffin tests to determine if there are residues of gunpowder left in their hands. Members of the CPD-QC SOCO team are also at the crime scene.

Suicide is the preliminary angle being eyed by the police, although the PNP is not discounting the possibility of foul play. CPD Chief Mabanag said they are not ruling out foul play after finding inconsistencies in the preliminary statement of Ted Failon.

Initial police findings reveal this:

1. Last night, April 14, 2009, Ted Failon and his wife had a marital spat inside their conjugal home at Tierra Pura, Tandang Sora Quezon City. (The house was originally owned by former ABS-CBN 2 anchor and now Vice President Noli de Castro, when he was still working as a journalist. De Castro sold (?) it to Failon when he transferred house. Failon has been living there since middle of the 90's)

2. The wife left the conjugal home after that serious quarrel. There was no definite finding as yet as to what caused the fight between the two.

3. This morning, April 15, Failon then went to DZMM for his regular anchoring job. During his show with Korina Sanchez (the program is a daily show between 8:30 to 10:30am), Ted received a call from his wife. Allegedly, the wife threatened to kill herself. She was reportedly apologetic about something which Failon did'nt specify.

4. Failon cut his program and, drove his blue Pajero to his house. Police said he arrived at his house at exactly 10:20 in the morning. He reportedly found his wife slumped inside the bathroom, with blood oozing from her right temple. The bullet entered her left temple and exited to the right. The bathroom is right inside the room of one of Failon's kids. A gun was beside her and reportedly a suicide note. The note was recovered by the police from the crime scene. The hand-written note was purportedly made by Failon's wife. The wife reportedly wrote an apology to Failon, though it was not certain why she decided to apologize to him.

5. Immediately, Failon got his wife, put her almost lifeless body inside his Pajero and rushed to the New Era University General Hospital. With Failon is his driver Glen, and his sister-in-law Pamela. The hospital is the most logical place to go since it is just a half kilometer away from their house. The wife remains comatose inside the ICU unit of the hospital and latest medical bulletin stated that she's "fighting for her life." She's reportedly being taken cared of by one of her relatives and being sustained by tubes and a breathing apparatus.

So, this is the latest update on this situation.

ABS-CBN, through Bong Osorio, urged the public not to speculate and just leave this very personal matter to the Failons.

Some questions, though:

1. It is S.O.P. for the police to subject Mr. Failon and his househelps to an investigation. However, it's quite surprising to say the least, why they conducted the investigation inside the house. The regular police procedure is to bring the "suspects" under custodial care and investigation conducted at the police station. The suspects, in this case, Failon and his househelps should have been placed under detention, as prescribed by law. Is it because of the presence of the Vice President in Failon's house that deterred police from exercising their jobs?

2. It is also very interesting that the bathroom where Failon found his wife was reportedly cleaned by the maids. Why? Who ordered it? Was it Mr. Failon and what's the reason why? Is it to "clean" the crime scene? Why? Failon knows the police S.O.P. Why did he ordered the bathroom cleaned prior to the arrival of the police investigators? This fuels some suspicion of foul play according to some police investigators.

3. Blood was found inside the blue Pajero of Mr. Failon, leading to speculations that the "shooting" incident happened right inside his car. I think this can be ruled out since it would be totally unnatural for somebody who committed a crime of shooting to go back to his house, place the body in the bathroom, then get it again from there and go to the hospital afterwards.

4. The .38 caliber pistol found to have been used by the wife in the alleged suicide was found on her right side though the entry wound was on the left temple and exited to the right. Likewise, there were no gunshots heard by Failon's neighbours at the time of the alleged suicide. In fact, eye witnesses said they saw a bloodied Failon leave the house at around 1pm without the body, leading to a theory that the shooting happened outside the house.

5. The blue pajero of Mr. Failon was newly washed. The incident was also reported five hours after the alleged shooting. The police only was able to go to Failon's house at 4 pm. When they arrived at the crime scene, they saw the blue Pajero already cleaned and also the bathroom. The maids claimed no one ordered them to clean the bathroom.

Clearly, these are all INITIAL REPORTS and I wrote them here just to update our readers on this case. The police is investigating this incident, which has shades of that O.J. Simpson murder case some years ago.

Will Failon be our next version of O.J. Simpson? Remember that some years ago, former Ilocos Congressman Farinas was, himself, accused and speculated to have murdered his wife Maria Theresa Carlson. Farinas was later cleared after reports say Carlson committed suicide by jumping from the open window of their condominium unit.

We need to reserve judgement on this one and avoid speculations since the authorities are doing their jobs to get to the bottom of this very controversial incident.