By Zach Hope and James Wilson
Warning: graphic content
The daughters of murdered Australian David Fisk have spoken publicly for the first time of their love for their father, his “wicked sense of humour” and their frustration at Australian officials for not providing them with key details.
The exclusive interview with this masthead and Nine News comes as police in the Philippines interrogate the alleged killer after he “surrendered” to them late on Tuesday.
Brittany (left) and Lacinda Fisk at home on Wednesday.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
The bodies of Fisk, his Philippine-Australian wife Lucita Cortez, and her Filipina daughter-in-law Mary Jane Cortez were discovered last Wednesday at Tagaytay Lake Hotel, a popular holiday destination with views over Lake Taal.
The Australian couple were at the end of a short Asian holiday. Fisk had his throat slit. The women died by suffocation.
“This is not something that happens in real life and I just think, ‘Why was my poor father caught up in this?’ It doesn’t make sense,” Lacinda Fisk said.
Brittany and Lacinda Fisk, pictured with their murdered father David.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
“No one should have to receive a phone call [saying] that their father has been murdered overseas and still just be so in the dark.
“I just pray for some answers and I just pray for Dad … to get home on Australian soil soon, and I just pray that he knew how loved he was by his sister, family and extended family because it’s just been horrific.
“We won’t stop fighting until we find out why, and we won’t stop fighting until we have justice for our father and Lucita.”
Tagaytay police chief Charles Daven M Capagcuan said the suspect used to be employed as a pool cleaner at the Lake Hotel, where the bodies were found, and had recently been fired.
The suspect in the triple murder case being transferred to the Hall of Justice in Tagaytay City, Philippines. Credit: Aram Lascano
“He wanted to get back at the hotel management for his dismissal,” he said.
Capagcuan said the breakthrough in the case came when the suspect was identified by at least three hotel employees based on his image captured by security cameras showing a part of his masked face.
The identification eventually led authorities to the suspect’s home province of Batangas, near Tagaytay, Capagcuan said. Some of the trio’s valuables had been stolen, but other items had been left behind.
The sisters said most of their information had come from reading media reports rather than the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.
David Fisk and Lucita Cortez.Credit: PR IMAGE
“My poor sister having to make the phone call and then her poor fiance on Thursday having to make the phone call to let me know how they actually died like ... no one should have to deal with that,” Brittany said. “We just need to know why and we need more answers.”
Lacinda said she had to call DFAT to confirm media reports that they had found a suspect.
“I understand that there’s obviously a due process, but it just didn’t seem right. It doesn’t seem fair that we’re having to continually push for these answers when you would hope that they would want to help us.”
Tagaytay Mayor Abraham Tolentino and Capagcuan presented the handcuffed suspect, wearing a hoodie, dark eyeglasses and a face mask, at a news conference. The man’s name was not announced.
The mayor repeated his apology to the relatives of the victims and to Australia for the “brutal crimes” that took place in his city.
Officials planned to file criminal complaints of robbery in addition to the killings against the suspect, who allegedly acknowledged he took Fisk’s watch and shoes after attacking him with a knife and suffocating Lucita and Mary Jane Cortez, Capagcuan said.
The killer had tied their hands and feet and wrapped packing tape around their heads. Lucita and Mary Jane died by suffocation, Capagcuan said last week. Fisk had his throat slit.
Hotel CCTV footage shows the male suspect leaving and re-entering the trio’s shared room, but there was no vision of him going in the first time. Investigators concluded the killer must have gained access through an outside window.
Tolentino publicly warned Capagcuan last week that he would sack him in seven days if no “progress” was made in catching a suspect.
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