The promise of finding love in a tropical paradise has long been a powerful allure for many Western men. In the digital age, online dating has made connecting with Filipina women easier than ever, often leading to whirlwind romances and cross-continental relationships.

But for two men, a Japanese-American chef and a young Scottish seaman, that dream of love in the Philippines would curdle into a devastating nightmare of deceit, greed, and ultimate betrayal, their stories ending in separate but equally tragic and violent conclusions.

The Case of Hiroshi Sugawara: The Pension Plot

In April 2023, 72-year-old Hiroshi “Doug” Sugawara, a retired Japanese-American chef, arrived in the Philippines, full of hope for a new life with Roxan, a 31-year-old Filipina he had met in a Facebook group. Their online romance had been swift, and just six months after they first connected, they were married.

They settled into a quiet subdivision in Liloan, Cebu, the picture of a happy, if unconventional, “May-December” couple. But less than a month into their marriage, on November 25, 2023, that picture was violently shattered.

Police were called to their home to find Hiroshi’s lifeless body. He had been brutally attacked, his hands and feet bound. His new wife, Roxan, told investigators it was a robbery-gone-wrong, claiming that intruders had taken her sling bag containing a small amount of cash. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), however, was immediately suspicious.

Under interrogation, Roxan’s story began to unravel, and she eventually made a shocking confession. She was, she admitted, the mastermind behind the entire incident.

Her fairytale romance was, in fact, a relationship poisoned by greed and broken promises. She claimed that Hiroshi had promised her P150,000 in cash upon their marriage, a share of his pension, and even a house and lot for her family—promises he had failed to keep.

Consumed by resentment, she devised a dark plan. Her initial thought, she confessed, was to have him incapacitated, to paralyze him so she could gain control of his finances.

On November 22, she attacked him herself while he slept but lost her nerve. Panicked and fearing that her injured husband would expose her, she made a fateful call. She contacted her ex-live-in partner, Gammy, the father of her three children, and lured him into her plot.

On the night of November 25, Gammy came to the house and finished the horrific act. Roxan confessed that they had then staged the scene to look like a robbery. Both she and her ex-partner were arrested, their story a chilling testament to a love that was, from the very beginning, a cold and calculated transaction.

The Case of John Lorn McDonald: The Love Triangle’s Tragic End

In September 2010, another foreigner’s quest for love ended in tragedy. John Lorn McDonald, a 27-year-old Scottish seaman, was lonely. His long voyages at sea had led him to an online dating site, where he was captivated by a 31-year-old Filipina named Juvylyn “Nancy” Romero.

After a whirlwind online romance, he flew to the Philippines to be with her. The connection was immediate, and just days into his trip, during a celebration with her family at a bar, a smitten John got down on one knee and proposed. She ecstatically said yes, and her family cheered.

Just hours later, the celebration turned into a scene of horror. In the early morning hours of September 5, back at Nancy’s home in Angono, Rizal, the couple was brutally attacked. Neighbors heard screams and found both John and Nancy suffering from multiple wounds from a sharp object. John was declared to have passed on arrival at the hospital. Nancy, though critically injured, survived.

The investigation into the seemingly random and brutal attack went cold for over a year.

The family offered a reward, and the NBI was involved, but no suspects were identified. The breakthrough finally came in December 2011, when police, acting on a tip, arrested a man named Anselmo Lacostales in Laguna. His confession would unravel a web of deceit that was even more shocking than the crime itself.

Anselmo was not a stranger; he was Nancy’s long-term live-in partner. The entire time she had been courting the Scottish seaman online, she had been living with Anselmo.

When John arrived in the Philippines, Nancy had brazenly introduced her real boyfriend to her foreign fiancé as her “brother.” The entire family was in on the lie, playing along for the sake of the financial security the wealthy foreigner promised.

But Anselmo, forced to watch his girlfriend be romanced and proposed to by another man in his own home, was consumed by a jealous rage. Hours after the happy engagement party, as the couple slept, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen.

In a fit of passion and insecurity, he took John’s life and then turned the weapon on Nancy in a desperate, failed attempt to eliminate the only witness to his crime. He confessed to the act and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, bringing a tragic and sordid end to a love story that was, from its very inception, built on a foundation of lies.