Americans accused of murdering Tomi Masters moved to city jail

Tomi Masters
Tomi Masters flanked by her alleged killers, Troy Woody and Mir Islam.

The two Americans arrested on suspicion of murdering Tomi Michelle Masters before dumping her body have been moved to Mandaluyong City Jail.

Senior Superintendent Moises Villaceran, Mandaluyong City Police chief, said Troy Woody, aged 21, and Mir Islam, 22, will have a brief stay at the city jail before being transferred to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.

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“The BJMP has directives that all foreign nationals should be detained in BJMP Bicutan and they must transfer those in district and city jails,” he said.

The pair were arrested after hiring a Grab car to transport a cardboard box containing the body of 23-year-old Tomi to a bridge over the Pasig river on December 23.

After dumping it into the river in the small hours of the morning, they continued to their destination. However, the driver, John Kenneth Quimba, was suspicious about their behaviour and contacted police.

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Following an investigation, the naked body of the victim was found bound in duct tape and wrapped in a garbage bag. An autopsy found that she had died by suffocation.

The two suspects — both chief executive officers of a US-based lending firm called Luxr Limited Liability Co — admit to dumping the body, but continue to blame one another for the killing.

The two suspects were turned over to the Mandaluyong City Jail on January 9. As we have reported, they had previously been sharing a 20-square metre cell with 16 other detainees at the Mandaluyong City Police Custodial Facility. 

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Speaking at the end of last month, police had stressed that the pair would receive “no special treatment” while in custody.

Woody, who was in a relationship with Tomi Masters, describes himself online as an “Early Crypto Investor” and has 17,000 followers on Twitter and 250,000 on Instagram, where he bragged of high living and drug use.

According to FBI documents, Islam was previously arrested in the US for his part in setting up a ‘credit card fraud forum’.

He had also served jail time for serial stalking and revealing private or identifying information about people on the internet (doxxing) and sending police SWAT teams to people’s houses (swatting).

Meanwhile, Sr. Supt. Villaceran told tempo.com that staff at the US Embassy in Manila were still working on paperwork to allow for the cremation of Tomi in the Philippines, in accordance with her family’s wishes.

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