Ted Failon Wife is Dead

Ted Failon’s wife has succumb to the bullet wound she got from her alleged suicide attempt. Trinidad “Trina” Arteche Etong passed away at the New Era Hospital in Quezon City at 8:50 Thursday night, April 16, 2009. This, despite Ted Failon’s daughter Kaye Etong’s pronouncement earlier that her mother was showing signs of improvement. The Failon couple have two daughters, Katrina Teresa, nicknamed Kaye, and Karishma.

The news of Trina Etong’s death is expected to further fan speculations as to how she sustained the gunshot wound. Before she died, doctors tried to revive her for 15 minutes by applying electric shocks. The family was then asked whether the doctors should continue with the emergency procedure, and they agreed to have it terminated upon seeing that the patient had “flat-lined.’’

The QC Police asked her family to submit Trina Etong for a paraffin test to determine if Mrs. Failon really fired a gun. Trina Etong’s relatives at the hospital refused to submit her to a paraffin test. The Police SOCO (Scene of the Crime Investigation Unit) said that the bullet trajectory also casts doubt on the alleged ’suicide try’ angle. The bullet mark was discovered at the back of the toilet bowl in the bathroom where Failon’s wife was found, indicating that the bullet’s trajectory was downward, this was the observation of Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District.

In most suicide cases, those who shoot themselves in the head would hold the gun in such way thay the bullet slug would travel upward, not downward. In the case of Failon’s wife, Trinidad Etong, the bullet entered through her left temple, exited through her right temple, and ricocheted to the toilet bowl, indicating a downward path of the bullet.

Trina’s husband, Ted Failon is now barred from leaving the country, the request is made reportedly pursuant to a request by a relative of the victim whose identity is confidential pending further investigation. Ted Failon and his sisters-in-law Pamela Arteche and Mean Arteche, brother-in-law Maximo Arteche and house helpers Pacifico Apacible, Carlota Morbos, Wilfreda Bolliser, and Glen Palan, were charged with obstruction of justice for supposedly failing to immediately report the shooting incident and for cleaning the crime scene.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez ordered the the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to help in the investigation, and assist the police in evidence gathering and interpretation. Asked if Failon had lapses in preserving evidence at the scene, Gonzalez said the cleaning of the scene was not actually a lapse, but a deliberate action to rid the place of evidence.

“That is not a lapse. That is intentional. Why will they clean the crime scene. They are tampering with evidence. That’s why I don’t want the PAO (Public Attorney’s Office) to participate there.” Gonzalez said.

Sec. Gonzalez also took a swipe at ABS-CBN, home network of veteran news anchor Ted Failon. He criticized claims that the police violated the privacy of Failon’s family, saying those making the claims are the ones who violated “the privacy of a dying person.”

“The wife who seems to be the victim who [was] dying seems to be the culprit now the way a television network is weaving the story, mukhang yung asawa pa [ni Failon] ang may kasalanan,” Gonzalez added.