Philippine police use Facebook in murder arrest

Philippine police on Wednesday said they used Facebook to help track down a computer technician accused of murdering nine people, three of them foreigners.

Police captured the suspect, Mark Dizon, 28, in San Fernando City north of Manila after his father, fearful that his son would be killed in a gunbattle, worked with authorities and arranged to meet him.

Witnesses initially identified Dizon as the murderer through his Facebook account, where police found out that a daughter of one of the victims was an ex-girlfriend.

"He had an account on Facebook and two witnesses positively identified him," Senior Superintendent Danilo Bautista, police chief of Angeles city where the murders took place, told AFP.

"We have an airtight case against him. I believe it is ironclad."

He said Dizon apparently closed his Facebook account after sensing police were on his heels, but two witnesses had already positively identified him using his profile picture.

The suspect tried to pull out a gun when police pounced on him Tuesday, but he was quickly subdued, Bautista said.

Dizon is suspected of killing American Albert Mitchell, 70, Briton James Porter, 51, and Canadian Geoffrey Bennun, 60, their three Filipina partners and three Filipino domestic helpers in separate attacks in Angeles this month.

News source: yahoof