Saturday, July 26, 2008
Chopped body of woman found
By Mia E. Abellana
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE chopped-up body of a woman was dumped in a mountain village bordering Minglanilla town and Toledo City yesterday morning.
Her remains were placed in three plastic bags and dumped by the roadside in Barangay Campo 8, Minglanilla town before noon. The absence of a head or identification papers complicated initial attempts to identify the victim.
“Sobra gyud ang kasuko sa biktima nga nakabuhat ug ingon ani (Whoever did this acted in rage),” said PO2 Avelino Selloria of the Minglanilla Police Station. In the 11 years he’s worked in the southern town, Selloria said it was the grisliest attack he had ever seen.
At least three persons with a missing daughter or sister showed up to see if they could recognize the woman, but were limited to searching for moles or other identifying marks.
Selloria said the authorities did manage to lift fingerprints from the victim’s right thumb and pinkie. Judging by the state of the body, the victim was dumped less than 24 hours before her death, he added.
A barangay councilor and two other residents told police that a taxicab arrived in Campo 8 about 4 a.m.
Hours later, grade school pupils who were on their way home from school caught sight of a dog with a severed hand in its mouth.
The frightened pupils informed their parents who, in turn, called up the police.
Barangay Councilor Carlito Pardillo of Campo 8, Toledo City, Avelino Adlawan and Rosendo Bacalso were all up early to get ready for work and caught sight of the taxicab.
They were some 120 meters away when the white taxicab arrived from Barangay Don Andres Soriano (formerly Luto-pan) and stopped for about three minutes. Then the cab left.
At about the same time, former Campo 7, Minglanilla barangay councilor Roel Largo, was aboard his passenger multicab in front of the Campo 8, Minglanilla Barangay Hall waiting for passengers.
He noticed the same white taxicab with a driver and a passenger in the front seat pass by, heading down the road that leads to Barangay Tabunok, Talisay City.
All four witnesses could not give the plate number or the taxi’s name because they did not think there was anything suspicious.
Three black plastic garbage bags contained different body parts of a woman.
The head, thighs, entire left arm and part of the right arm were missing.
The right forearm including the hand was recovered 90 meters away from the site, in the side of Toledo City where the dog dropped it.
Her right calf had an incision while her organs and breasts were halved. Her toenails still had nail polish.
Selloria also observed that the cuts were clean, which meant that the instrument used was very sharp.
There were no missing persons reported in Minglanilla, but a doctor informed Toledo City Police that her housemaid was missing since Thursday afternoon.
Maria Luz Generali, 20, was reportedly sent to buy bread Thursday afternoon but failed to return. Her employers asked her parents in Balamban if she had gone home.
Her mother Delia anxiously waited at the St. Francis Funeral Homes in Cebu City but the woman remained unidentified as of press time.
Delia told Sun.Star Cebu that she did not know of any enemies or problems that her daughter faced.
Since the head was not recovered, the photo she used was useless. However, she said her daughter had a scar on her right hand.
The body had yet to be identified as of press time. As of last night, two families from Talisay City—one missing a daughter and the other, missing a sister—went to the police after hearing about the body’s discovery.