Suspects implicate policewoman’s husband in slayings of her, son

Jing Villamente·1 February 2026, 2:20 pm·1 min read

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Suspects implicate policewoman’s husband in slayings of her, son — (January 31 2026) Scene of the Crime Operatives SOCO use a metal detector searching of the allegedly firearm used for the killing of Senior Master Sergeant Diane Marie Mollenido and her son, along the Pulilan–Baliuag Bypass Road on Saturday January 31 2026, one of the arrested suspect said they threw the gun use in the killing into the ditch. The victim assigned to the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), was found dead in Pulilan, Bulacan, on Saturday—five days after she and her eight-year-old son were reported missing. Photo/Analy Labor
ANALY LABOR

Police Senior Master Sergeant John Mollenido, the husband of slain policewoman Diane Marie Mollenido, was arrested Sunday by operatives of the Quezon City Police District, Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU) after three previously arrested suspects pointed to him, a reliable source told the DAILY TRIBUNE (DT).

Police earlier hauled in and arrested couple Christian, dismissed cop, and Pia Katrina Panganiban, along with their house help Gil Valdemoro Dy Jr., when forensic examination of a bloodstain recovered inside their house in Novaliches, Quezon City, tested positive as the blood of the victim.

Investigators first thought that the Panganiban couple were the main suspects in the killing, as the crime was committed inside their house, the day before Mollenido and her son were reported missing. But on Saturday, 31 January, the couple told QCPD-CIDU investigators that it was PSMS Mollenido who ordered the killing, resulting in his immediate arrest.

The DT source said the 29-year-old female suspect was a godchild of the slain policewoman, who trusted the couple as her agents in her car buy-and-sell business. A multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) was the supposed topic of discussion during their meeting with the victim on 16 January, when she was shot by the dismissed cop.

The couple's house help, meanwhile, admitted to investigators that he helped clean the crime scene and dispose of the victims' bodies. The couple covered the sofa with plastic when Mollenido was shot in the head at close range. The suspects then turned to her eight-year-old son, John Ysmael, and suffocated him using a plastic bag.

The victims' bodies were then loaded into a sport utility vehicle (SUV), with Mollenido's body dumped in Pulilan, Bulacan, and her son's in a "kalamansi" farm in Victoria, Tarlac.

Mollenido's body was discovered on 24 January in a creek in Pulilan with a gunshot wound to the head.

On Thursday, 29 January, the boy's body was recovered.