Filipina victim of Guam gun rampage brought home

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—The remains of a Filipino woman shot dead by an American in Guam were brought home to her family in this Pampanga capital on Thursday.

Isabelita Mesina Pamintuan, 57, was killed with her niece, Marites Mamaligsa, 38, in their apartment in Harmon in Guam on December 7. The suspect, Nick Caudell, 55, supposedly shot himself to death in the same apartment, according to a report from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) office in Central Luzon.

Pamintuan’s husband Rustico, a retired police major, declined to talk about the case.

“We’re not only mourning. Our hearts are bleeding,” Rustico told the Inquirer on Friday. He was on the verge of tears and his body was shaking as he spoke.

The Guam government, on its website, reported that Pamintuan worked as clerk trainee with the senior community service employment center.

An online report by the Marianas Variety quoted the Guam police spokesperson A. J. Balajadia as saying that the case “appeared to be isolated and domestic in nature.”

Members of the Filipino community in Dededo in Guam prayed the Rosary and offered Masses as well as gathered donations for the repatriation of Pamintuan’s remains. The Philippine consulate helped in the repatriation, according to DFA Regional Director Arturo Romua.

Pamintuan, a mother of four, moved to Guam four years ago, relatives here said. Mamaligsa was buried in Guam.

The 18-year-old daughter of Mamaligsa was in the apartment when Caudell, a park ranger, went shooting, according to an online report of the Pacific Daily News. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon