When crimes stir up passion and emotions

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By Jennifer P. Rendon

Netflix series “Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” has passed 1 billion hours viewed.

And there are other countless crime stories that had audiences glued to their seats.

This phenomenon is not at all surprising since history would tell that the public has had a penchant for true crime since time immemorial.

In fact, during the 19th century, some would shell out hard-earned money to buy tickets to witness public hangings.

And yes, crime stories are journalism staples. They are reliably saleable to the readers.

Their commercial and even entertainment values become higher if the details are lurid, strange, or even titillating.

But more than its bankability to readers, crime stories also reflect social issues of justice, peace and order, and gender, among others.

In the local setting, two Crime stories took the Ilonggos’ fancy in the past years because of their nebulous nature and sensational (non)ending – the Diergos Murder and the Estancia triple-murder cases.

Late afternoon of Oct. 26, 2021, airwaves and social media pages were flooded with photos of a body bag and a parked vehicle where a dead woman was found.

The 36-year-old Claire Diergos died due to two stab injuries and an incise wound on her neck.

She also sustained two hesitation, or tentative, stab wounds on her left hand, specifically on her palm, and two incise wounds on her right thumb.

She also suffered a scalp hematoma on the left side of her head and another hematoma on her right thigh.

Speculations ran wild on why she was killed. Or who were her killers.

The Ilonggo people were quickly turned into a community of investigators, prosecutors, and judges rolled into one.

Enrico Surita, a 20-year reporter for GMA Super Radyo, said that listenership and social media engagements skyrocketed.

“We were inclined to do a blow-by-blow coverage of any development – be it a small or those that will impact the case. Suddenly, anyone that has known Diergos on a personal level is a good source of interview material,” he said.

Even vloggers had a heyday during the coverage of the Diergos case – from the time her body was discovered to the ongoing investigation and the filing of the case.

Suddenly, from less than a hundred, they were catapulted into getting thousands of live viewers.

The Diergos case was capitalized to gain wide readership, broad listenership, and higher viewership.

With the public so invested in the case, “it has also its pros and cons,” Police Master Sergeant Francisco Lindero, then Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) spokesperson, said.

During the course of the investigation of the case, Lindero said that IPPO received tons of information.

“The public was participative in our efforts to solve the case. It has somehow touched their sensitivity,” he said.

The pressure was enormous for police investigators to give justice to the family of Claire Diergos.

Those same sentiments and pressure were also present following the Estancia triple murder that happened almost a year later.

The murder of three young entrepreneurs – Mark Clarenz Libao, Jan Paul Mark Bosque, and Chrysler Floyd Fernandes – on Sept. 14, 2022 at Estancia, Iloilo also rocked Iloilo.

“The public debated on who could have killed young men who had so much in store for them,” Lindero, who was also appointed spokesman for the case, said.

In both incidents, the expectation for police to file a case was prominent.

“They are now setting parameters on what to do with the case. That’s the time that our belief in the power of social media was even bolstered. It has a strong impact on police actions and police information,” he said.

Unfortunately, there were several pieces of information that leaked through social media that created speculations.

“There are netizens who created fake news and sowed misinformation,” he said.

But just the same, Lindero said that the opinions and analysis of the netizens are being taken seriously.

“It has come to a point where the information given to us was too much for us to handle,” he said.

The IPPO Facebook page was also swarmed with followers.

From a mere 7,000 followers before the Diergos case, it has grown to 43,000 after the Estancia triple murder incident.

Kape Kag Balita, a live streaming program over the IPPO Facebook page, garnered 500,000 followers in a span of three hours when policemen tackled the Diergos case.

In the case of the Diergos murder, the public participation was too high that they already served as jury, he added.

Lindero believed that the Diergos case is more celebrated than that of the Estancia triple killing.

“Emotions ran high with Diergos because of so many factors. She was a single mother to a young daughter. We should also take into consideration how gruesome her murder was,” he said.

Lindero said that the suspects, being members of a known family, have also triggered emotions from netizens.

Even Colonel Gilbert Gorero, then IPPO director when the Diergos murder happened, said they got overwhelming support and, yes, even bashing at that time.

“But that’s understandable. Ilonggos don’t tolerate brutal killings like what happened to Claire Diergos,” he said.

The public demands finding justice for her death, regardless of her background.

“I think it’s the public sentiment that we want fast treatment when it comes to law. It has become more sensationalized since the killing involves a woman who left behind a young child,” Gorero said.

The Ilonggos’ interest in the Diergos case might not at all be surprising since true crime has reportedly overtaken sports and even politics, according to a study.

What makes it even more of a magnet for public consumption was the involvement of a woman in her prime as a victim.

And the public’s penchant for crime stories or incidents would surely not end with the Diergos murder and the Estancia killings.

From reporters to police investigators to the general public, crime incidents engage people. It allows us to explore the mind of a criminal and poke into the circles of the bereaved loved ones.

“People tend to play detectives. After all, most will not be able to be victims, thankfully, or perpetrators, and even investigators,” Gorero said.

True enough, obsession with true crime would stay because of people’s natural curiosity to explore what runs in the mind of a killer.

On the other hand, others wanted to see to it that justice is blind.

That’s why, people are drawn to the Diergos case to see if the law is fair and just, no matter your social status.

And yes, people are also driven by the desire for survival.

As they say, the more you know, the more you are likely to fall victim.