Controversy: Rod Strunk...

Strunk suicide deepens Nida murder mystery
By Bayani San Diego Jr., Alcuin Papa, Tetch Torres, Thea Alberto
Inquirer, INQUIRER.net
Last updated 02:51am (Mla time) 07/15/2007

MANILA, Philippines—The death of Rod Strunk has deepened the mystery of the murder of his wife Nida Blanca.

But close friends of the late actress say otherwise.

“I believe that his death ends Nida’s murder case.”

This reaction came after news that Strunk, accused as the mastermind in Blanca’s gruesome murder, had committed suicide.

“I want to tell Kay Torres [Blanca’s daughter from a previous marriage] not to pursue the case anymore. I also want to consult a lawyer—to know more about the legal repercussions of his death,” said veteran actress Caridad Sanchez, a close friend of Blanca.

Sanchez said Strunk’s death was poetic justice, saying she found it “very ironic” that Strunk also died in a parking lot.

“Why is it that he was also found in a parking lot?” asked Sanchez. “What is the meaning of his death? It’s like poetic justice.”

Strunk, 68, a former US actor and singer, died Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) after falling reportedly from the second floor balcony of a motel in Tracy, California, to the parking lot 20 feet below in what police ruled was a suicide.

“How can we proceed when he (Strunk) is already dead? Tama na yan (That’s enough). That’s hatred already. The person involved is already dead. If he really killed Dory (Blanca’s nickname), there is already judgment from God,” Sanchez added.

Torres, however, declined to comment on Strunk’s death until she gets official confirmation from Tracy officials.

Sanchez said that Torres would not be granting any interviews to media for now.

Delia Razon, another close friend of Blanca, also expressed hope that Strunk’s suicide would bring Blanca’s murder case to a close.

“It’s finally over,” said Razon, a 1950s movie star and fellow contract player of Blanca in LVN Pictures.

“I just hope that Strunk left a suicide note, to clarify things,” she noted. “Nida didn’t deserve to die that way.”

Reacting to news of Strunk’s death, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said:

‘Moot and academic’

“Everything will go with him to the grave.”

Gonzalez, however, said he has not received any official communication from the US government, adding that the government had filed a second extradition case against Strunk.

“Now that he’s dead, his extradition [and] murder case are already moot and academic,” he added.

Authorities were trying to prove that Strunk ordered Blanca killed because of money and property. They said Strunk had accumulated debts and was disinherited by Blanca before she was killed.

The body of Blanca (Dorothy Jones in real life), who was stabbed to death on Nov. 6, 2001, was found in the car park of Atlanta Center in Greenhills, San Juan.

For Sanchez, Strunk’s suicide brings closure to the murder case. “It’s God Himself who has acted.”

A renewed Christian, Sanchez detected “the hand of God” in this recent development.

In her lowest moment, when she felt as if Blanca’s murder case would remain unresolved, Sanchez said that she “had lifted everything to the Lord … It’s been six years. If we couldn’t get justice on earth … I would seek it from the Lord, the best judge.”

She clarified, however, that she was not rejoicing over Strunk’s death. “At this point, it’s best to extend compassion to him and his family. I don’t think God would have wanted him to commit suicide … But, for a person to be pushed to end his own life … he must’ve been in pain. His conscience must’ve have been bothering him.”

Strunk lawyer sad

In a statement, lawyer Alma Mallonga, Strunk’s counsel in the Philippines, expressed concern that his death would spur further speculation linking him to Blanca’s murder.

“We, his lawyers are deeply saddened by news of Rod Strunk’s death and concerned that this may be capitalized upon by some to further connect him to the death of Nida Blanca,” Mallonga further said.

“Mr. Strunk loved Ms Blanca, who was his wife for 20 years. He was highly despondent over her death. He struggled mightily to rebuild his life without her. But obviously, he failed. He had nothing to gain from her death and there is no evidence but only cruel speculation to continue linking him to the crime. The unfounded accusations should now stop,” Mallonga added.

Mallonga revealed Strunk had been planning to write a book on the murder of his wife.

“We pray that he finds the peace that eluded him in his life after Nida Blanca.”

Case continues

But Public Attorney Office (PAO) head Persida Acosta told the Inquirer that the Blanca murder case would still continue despite the death of Strunk.

She said that other suspects in the case, like Philip Medel and Mike Martinez are still alive.

“Tuloy pa rin ang kaso (The case will still continue). Medel is still alive in jail and so is Martinez, an alleged co-conspirator,” Acosta said. “They are the keys to the investigation.”

Medel is detained at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) while Martinez is still missing. Another still unidentified male suspect is also at large, Acosta said.

Acosta said the case no longer involves justice for Blanca but is already a “People of the Philippines versus” the killers.

The National Bureau of Investigation also said the case against the other suspects in Blanca’s murder would continue.

Lawyer Edmund Arugay, NBI deputy director for technical services, said that while death will extinguish one’s criminal liability, there are other suspects charged in the murder case.

“Philip Medel is in jail, so the case goes on,” Arugay, former head of the NBI National Capital Region which used to handle the murder case.

Strunk was implicated in the killing of his wife in November 2001 by Medel, who claimed Strunk had hired him to kill Blanca.

Extradition rejected

The NBI eventually charged Strunk as the mastermind for Blanca’s murder in July 2002 but Strunk managed to leave for the US to visit his ailing mother, Helen Strunk, who was dying of cancer, before he could be charged. She died on Jan. 20, 2002, two days before Strunk arrived in Tracy.

Strunk never returned to the Philippines.

In May 2003, however, federal agents, acting on an extradition request from the Philippine government, arrested Strunk and placed him in the Sacramento County Jail pending an extradition hearing.

But a US federal court later threw out the extradition request because Philippine authorities failed to establish Strunk’s guilt after Medel’s recantation. Strunk was then ordered released from jail.

After his mother’s death, Strunk remained in Tracy in the family home on Whittier Avenue. He worked for a time as a sales clerk at the Sears store in West Valley Mall.

Strunk has been a Tracy City resident since October 2003. He became an employee of the city working as a camera operator for the city’s public station Channel 26. He resigned in January of this year.

US police investigators said Strunk “sustained injuries from a fall from a second-floor balcony.”

Strunk was found dead on the parking lot outside the Tracy Inn around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Matt Robinson, Tracy police public information officer.

“Yes, he did,” Robinson told Inquirer.net in a phone interview, when asked if Strunk committed suicide.

There were also no indications of foul play, said Robinson.

Police responded after a woman reported that she found a man bleeding from the head and nose on the parking lot of Tracy Inn.

Evidence of suicide

The woman told police he was not breathing and did not have a pulse. Police arrived and called the San Joaquin County Coroner shortly afterward.

A Tracy police report said that “evidence [was found] in his room that indicates Strunk took his own life.”

But Strunk’s sister Sharry Grove doubted the theory of police that her brother committed suicide, according to tracypress.com.

“That wouldn’t have been something that Roger would have done,” Grove was quoted as saying. “We really feel like it would have been an accident.”

She added that it made no sense that her brother would jump from a second-story balcony, a drop of about 20 feet.

“I don’t know how they came up with that. That would be very out of character for my brother,” said Grove.

Razon and Sanchez both said they didn’t have bad memories of Strunk.

Sanchez related: “I believe that he wasn’t walang hiya [brazen] nor … manhid [insensitive]. He was an artist … And Nida loved him so.”

“He is not the type to kill. I think there was no intention to kill Dory,” Sanchez added.

“Maybe his conscience was bothering him, who knows. That’s enough justice from God for me, if he really did it,” Sanchez said. “It was allowed by God to happen.”

One-hit wonder

“Years ago, Rod had a show,” Razon recalled. “Nida herself sold tickets to her friends, who came in full force to watch him.”

Strunk, known earlier in his show biz career as Rod Lauren, had one hit song “If I Had a Girl” which reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960.

He appeared in several US television programs (“The Ed Sullivan Show” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”) and movies (“Law of the Lawless” and “The Crawling Hand”).

According to Tracy Press, Strunk met Blanca while he was shooting a war movie (“Once Before I Die”) in the Philippines in 1964 and they married in Las Vegas in 1979. The two moved to Manila where they lived for 23 years.

Last December, Strunk reportedly told friends he was marrying another woman in Redding, Oregon. According to tracypress.com, that marriage broke up within a few months.

In a statement, Mallonga said Strunk’s presence at the Tracy Inn was connected to his recent separation from his new wife, whom she did not name.

“He (Strunk) had married anew but recently separated, which is why he was staying in a hotel at the time of his death,” Mallonga said in the statement read on GMA 7’s show biz talk show “Startalk” on Saturday.

"At first I was shocked when I heard this news, early last saturday morning, In my view, as if justice is served, if he is the real criminal that result to the death of one of the pillars in showbusiness, I can say that my sympathy goes with Nida's family."

Feature: Charmed, a Show that Kicks

Charmed is an American television series that ran for eight seasons on The WB. It was produced by Aaron Spelling and is about three sisters who are the world's most powerful good witches, known throughout the supernatural community as "The Charmed Ones" but known to everyone else as the Halliwells. Each sister possesses unique magical powers that grow and evolve over the course of their lives. The Charmed Ones live together in a manor and use their supernatural abilities to battle the warlocks, demons and other evil forces that populate San Francisco, California.

The show was the last in its generation of supernatural-themed shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Roswell. It is also noted for its mixture of multiple genres (from horror and fantasy to comedy and even soap), as well as continuing after a number of archetypal jump the shark moments, most famously the departure of one of the leading actresses at the end of season three. It also had the highest rated debut (until the debut of Smallville at 8.40 million), for the WB Television Network, with 7.70 million viewers tuning in for the series premiere, "Something Wicca This Way Comes".

On January 15, 2006, with the airing of "Payback's a Witch", Charmed became the longest running show with all-female leads, surpassing Laverne & Shirley.^[1] The series ended its run on May 21, 2006 in the US.^[2][3] The Charmed series finale, "Forever Charmed", pulled in a season high of 4.49 million viewers.

The theme song for Charmed is called "How Soon Is Now?" by Love Spit Love, which was originally recorded by The Smiths.

The story of Charmed begins with the three Halliwell sisters — Prue, Piper and Phoebe — coming together six months after the death of their grandmother. Moving back into the family Manor in San Francisco, the youngest sister, Phoebe, discovers an old book — the Book of Shadows — in the attic. Reading an incantation from it, she unwittingly sets in motion events that fulfill an ancient prophecy. Strange and harrowing occurrences begin which eventually leads the sisters to realize that they are witches.

They discover that not only do they possess supernatural powers, but also come from a long line of powerful witches. The first in the line, Melinda Warren, was burned at the stake in the Salem Witch Trials. However, before she died, Melinda prophesied that each coming generation of Warren (later Halliwell) witches would grow stronger and stronger, culminating in the arrival of three sisters -- the strongest good witches the world had ever seen; the three sisters would form The Power of Three, the most powerful magical force ever.

Prue Halliwell, the oldest sister, develops the power of telekinesis and can move things with her mind. She later gains the power of astral projection, where she can make a clone of herself appear wherever she desires. Piper, the middle child, receives the power to freeze molecules or stop time. This power later evolves so that she can blow things up: molecular combustion. Phoebe, the youngest sister, receives the passive power of premonition, which allows her to see see future events (and later past events as well). She eventually obtains the active power to levitate, which is useful when used in combination with her martial arts skills. Her empathic powers develop late in the series, allowing her to read others' emotions and affect the supernatural powers of other beings whose powers are tied to their emotions, allowing her to "rebound" the attacks of certain demons, as well as the Valkyries seen in "Valhalley of the Dolls".

After the tragic and unexpected death of Prue, it is revealed that the sisters have a younger half-sister named Paige, born to their mother Patty and Sam, her Whitelighter, a guardian angel for witches. As this type of relationship was forbidden and unheard of at the time, they gave the baby to Sister Agnes, a nun, and the Matthews family later adopted her. Her birth parents requested only that her first name begin with 'P', to continue the tradition. From her Whitelighter father, Paige inherits the power to "orb". This also has an effect on the powers she inherits from Patty: instead of telekinesis, Paige is able to call for an object; the object in question will then orb to her or to any location she wishes. Though this power requires the use of verbal commands, she has been able to do so silently when in a state of enhanced power, and in a few other instances. This power is called telekinetic orbing. In Season 5, Paige reveals that she also has other Whitelighter powers, such as glamouring. Halfway through Season 8, Paige develops more of her Whitelighter side by being able to heal and locate charges by sensing them.

A central theme throughout the shows run is the sisters' struggle to balance their normal lives with their supernatural responsibilities. The burden of keeping their destinies a secret from the outside world has repeatedly created tensions in their friendships, workplaces, and romantic relationships. Only a few know their secret and help them on a regular basis. The most important is Leo Wyatt, a Whitelighter assigned by the Elders to guide and protect the sisters. Leo means a great deal to the sisters both professionally and personally: he heals their wounds, advises them collectively and individually, and mediates between them and the enigmatic Elders. He also becomes the love of Piper's life, her husband and father of her children. Others who keep the Charmed Ones' secret over the years include policemen Andy Trudeau and Darryl Morris, tormented half-demon Cole Turner, the mysterious time-traveler Chris Perry, sisters Christy and Billie Jenkins, Paige's husband Henry Mitchell and the many other creatures in the magical community.

[Excerpt from www.wikipedia.org]

"From the start that I heard from my teacher in English during 3rd year high school, she said 'In order for you to speak tha english language fluently, you must watch tv series like Charmed, which uses tha languages.' From that time, I was intrigued, actually the 1st episode that I watched is from season 2, episode 16: Murphy's Luck. The time that I want to watch the Charmed is the opening of season 4, where Paige enters the story, replacing Prue. Prue is a great protagonist of the story but to say I like Paige than Prue."

"Everything happens for a reason"

"Your emotion clouded your better judgment"

"There is always first for everything..."