For many Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), finding a partner who understands the unique struggles of life abroad is a cherished blessing. For Johnny Medina and May-Lasis “Sunset” Foronda, their rekindled romance in Taiwan seemed like the perfect love story. They were two hardworking 27-year-olds, supporting each other through homesickness and long factory hours, their families in the Philippines cheering them on. But this shared dream of a better life would end in a hotel room in Zhubei, with a rejected marriage proposal and a murder that has sent shockwaves through the Filipino community.

Johnny and Sunset’s story began long before they set foot in Taiwan. They were a couple in the Philippines, both with ambitions of working abroad. Though they broke up during the stressful application process, fate brought them back together when they crossed paths again as OFWs. They quickly became each other’s rock, a familiar comfort in a foreign land. Johnny, a gregarious motorcycle enthusiast, was even warmly accepting of Sunset’s young child back home. To everyone who knew them, they were the ideal OFW couple.

Behind the happy social media posts, however, a critical conflict was brewing. Johnny was ready to settle down. Convinced that Sunset was “the one,” he proposed marriage. She, however, had doubts and was not ready to take that step. She gently rejected him. Undeterred, Johnny tried again. And again. Each time, Sunset refused, her hesitation a growing source of frustration for a man who believed they were destined to be together.

On the night of August 13, 2022, this recurring conflict reached its tragic breaking point. The couple checked into a hotel, where Johnny once again asked for her hand in marriage. When Sunset gave him the same answer, his repeated frustration allegedly boiled over into a deadly rage.

According to a harrowing account from the victim’s family, Johnny suffocated Sunset with a pillow until she stopped breathing. His actions in the aftermath were chillingly cold. Instead of panicking or calling for help, he took her phone. For hours, as her body lay in the room, he reportedly used her Messenger account to contact her parents in Saudi Arabia and his own friends, confessing to what he had done and expressing suicidal thoughts.

It wasn’t Johnny who alerted the authorities. It was Sunset’s frantic friends and family, who, after receiving the terrifying messages, called her roommates and urged them to seek help. When medics and police finally arrived at the hotel, they found Johnny with the body of his girlfriend, who had been dead for several hours.

The news of the murder and Johnny’s arrest was met with disbelief. To his friends and followers, he was the cheerful, funny guy from his TikTok videos, not a violent killer. But as the details emerged, a darker picture of obsession and an inability to handle rejection came into focus.

While Johnny Medina awaits trial for murder in Taiwan—a country that retains the death penalty for heinous crimes—a family in the Philippines is left to mourn a daughter and a single mother. Sunset Foronda went abroad with the singular dream of providing a better future for her child. Her life was tragically cut short, a devastating conclusion to an OFW love story that serves as a heartbreaking cautionary tale about a love that became a deadly obsession.